Exam Profile MCTS 70-664: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring

Date: Oct 1, 2012

This article profiles the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring exam (MCTS 70-664), which completes the requirements for the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuration certification. Pearson IT Certification provides a variety of exam preparation tools to help our customers in their quest for certification. As part of our service to you, we have developed this Exam Profile series. Each profile is developed based on the testing experience of one of our trainers or authors. You won’t get exact questions or answers, but you will get a real feel for the exam. Each profile describes question forms, trouble spots, hints for exam preparation, and recommendations for additional study resources. Find out what you can expect to see on the exam and how you can better prepare for it.

The 70-664 exam is meant to be taken by IT or telecommunications professionals who have experience with complex deployments. They should know how to deploy and configure Lync Server 2010 for end users, endpoint devices, telephony, audio/video and web conferences, security, and high availability. Candidates should also know how to monitor and troubleshoot Lync Server 2010 using Microsoft tools. In addition, candidates should have experience with Windows Server Active Directory 2010 and network and telecommunication components that support the configuration of Lync Server 2010.

After you pass the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring (70-664) exam, you complete the requirements for the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuration certification.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring (70-664) exam counts as credit toward the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Administrator certification.

Exam Details

Number of Questions: Approximately 55 questions (Since Microsoft does not publish this information, the number of exam questions may change without notice.)
Types of Questions: This test format is multiple choice and multiple choice multiple answer.
Passing Score: 700

This passing score does not mean that you must answer 70 percent of the items correctly in order to pass the exam. The actual percentage varies from exam to exam and may be more or less than 70 percent. There is no penalty for guessing. No points are deducted for incorrect answers. If a question specifies that you must choose multiple correct answers, you must choose the exact number of correct answers specified in the question in order to earn a point for that item. Some of the questions on the exam may not count toward the calculation of your score. Microsoft will often throw a question in that is meant to gather data that will help them improve the exam.

Time Limit: 120 minutes
How to Register: Prometric.com

Trouble Spots

As with any exam, it will vary from person to person as to what is deemed to be difficult. Be sure you are familiar with each of the topics in the exam objectives listed below.

The Set-CsPinSendCAWelcomeMail cmdlet should be run to provide the dial-in conferencing information to all the users on the network.
Use the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel and edit the Route settings in order to ensure that when users on the PSTN receive calls from users in your organization, the calls display a specific telephone number.
To enable Call Admission Control, you should run the cmdlet Set-CsNetworkConfiguration.
If your Lync Server 2010 has a bandwidth policy and you need to override the policy for a specific user, create a Voice Policy.
In order to publish, enable, or disable a topology when adding or removing a server role, you have to be logged in as a user who is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins and Domain Admins groups. It is possible to delegate the proper administrator rights and permissions.
After defining the topology in Topology Builder, you must publish the topology to the Central Management store. The Central Management store provides a schematized storage of the data needed to define, set up, maintain, administer, describe, and operate a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 deployment.
The process of backing up and restoring services may require you to perform some tasks with components that are not part of Lync Server, but upon which Lync Server depends, such as SQL.
Perform regular backups at appropriate intervals. The simplest and most commonly used backup type and rotation schedule is a full, nightly backup of the entire SQL Server database. Then, if restoration is necessary, the restoration process requires only one backup and no more than a day’s data should be lost.
The Lync Server 2010 Logging Tool allows you to view and analyze log files on a computer other than the one on which the logs were captured. OCSLogger.exe is the executable file that runs Logging Tool, which by default is installed to %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Tracing. It can be used on computers running the Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 operating systems, as well as on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Preparation Hints

Review the Exam Objectives below and make sure that you are familiar with them. The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring exam is designed for those who have experience in this environment. Always check the Microsoft site for the specific exam you are going to take. In this instance, the site is http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-664.

There are many web sites and blogs that can help you to research topics, but be careful to fully research the information you read. It is not advisable to try to find sites that list questions and answers for several reasons. First, you don’t know if you will be asked a specific question and second, the answers given in a blog may be inaccurate and third, you need to understand the information to adequately prepare.

When taking the exam, read each question carefully. Microsoft is notorious for adding a lot of unneeded information in their questions. Make sure that when you click on a choice, that it is really marked. Be careful clicking anywhere on the screen. I found that by inadvertently clicking near the scroll bar on the right of the screen, I actually changed an answer. You get a single piece of paper and a marker for writing. You can use a small amount of time before you even start the exam to make notes once you enter the test area. Sometimes there is even a questionnaire at the beginning of the test that does not count against your test time. You can even use this time to write down notes, facts, tables or other information by taking your time between answers.

Recommended Study Resources

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Unleashed by Alex Lewis, Andrew Abbate and Tom Pacyk

Test King

Microsoft also has recommended classroom training:

10533AD: Deploying, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (5 Days)
10533A: Deploying, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (5 Days)

Microsoft E-Learning:

Lync-ELRN-TSAE: Configuring and Managing Lync Server 2010 (15 Hours)

Exam Objectives

The exam objectives are broken up into five different categories. The 70-664 exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.

The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam.

The objectives for Exam 70-664 as stated by Microsoft are as follows:

Managing Users and Client Access (20 percent)

Configure user accounts.

This objective may include but is not limited to: enabling Active Directory users, moving users, applying policies to users, and managing users in bulk

Deploy and maintain clients.

This objective may include but is not limited to: deploying Communicator, configuring group policy, configuring client version policy, deploying the Attendee/Attendant consoles

Configure conferencing policies.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring general conference settings, configuring A/V settings, configuring web conferencing settings, and configuring Application Sharing settings

Configure Instant Messaging (IM) policies.

This objective may include but is not limited to: file transfer filters and URL filters

Deploy and maintain Lync Server 2010 devices.

This objective may include but is not limited to: publishing device updates, configuring device policies, managing and deploying common area devices and analog devices

Resolve client access issues.

This objective may include but is not limited to: enabling/disabling logging, using Snooper to open and navigate trace file, troubleshooting EWS and Address Book errors, using client tools to troubleshoot connectivity issues, and troubleshooting certificate errors

Configuring a Lync Server 2010 Topology (21 percent)

Prepare to deploy a topology.

This objective may include but is not limited to: installing local configuration stores, provisioning servers in Active Directory, modifying features and roles on Windows servers, preparing DNS, deploying the Central Management Store

Configure Lync Server 2010 by using Topology Builder.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring site details, configuring simple URLs, site federation route, configuring Lync Server roles and pools, and using the Best Practices Analyzer to validate deployment

Configure role-based access control in Lync Server 2010.

This objective may include but is not limited to: creating and assigning roles

Configure a location information server.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring LIS with Windows PowerShell, creating and assigning location profiles, associating addresses with physical locations, and enabling/disabling E911 disclaimer

Configure server pools for load balancing.

This objective may include but is not limited to: hardware load balancing and DNS load balancing

Configuring Enterprise Voice (19 percent)

Configure voice policies.

This objective may include but is not limited to: user, site, and global, configuring phone usages, and running test cases

Configure dial plans.

This objective may include but is not limited to: normalization, assessing impact of trunk groups, and accommodating PBX coexistence

Manage routing.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring and troubleshooting voice routing

Configure Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging integration.

This objective may include but is not limited to: dial plans and policies

Configure dial-in conferencing.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring access numbers and dial-in participant settings

Configure call admission control.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring and troubleshooting Bandwidth Management

Configure Response Group Services (RGS).

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring agents, RGS groups, RGS queues, and RGS workflow

Configure Call Park and Unassigned Number.

This objective may include but is not limited to: feature interaction

Manage a Mediation Server pool and PSTN Gateway.

This objective may include but is not limited to: creating and configuring a Mediation Server pool, configuring Media Bypass, configuring Gateway settings, and coexistence and migration considerations

Configuring Lync Server 2010 for External Access (19 percent)

Configure Edge Services.

This objective may include but is not limited to; configuring Director Services, creating and configuring external access pools, and configuring federation

Configure a firewall.

This objective may include but is not limited to: IP addresses, port settings, NAT, and routing

Configure a reverse proxy.

This objective may include but is not limited to: configuring certificates, Lync Server web components, and Autodiscover

Monitoring and Maintaining Lync Server 2010 (21 percent)

Backup and restore Lync Server 2010.

This objective may include but is not limited to: SQL databases and instances, contacts with dbimpexp, topology with Topology Builder, topology with PowerShell and file shares, and activating CMS on a new front end

Configure monitoring and archiving.

This objective may include but is not limited to: reporting services and SQL, archiving IM and Group Chat, monitoring A/V quality, and compliance considerations

Implement troubleshooting tools.

This objective may include but is not limited to: analyzing events logged in Windows Event log, creating a trace file with OCSLogger, analyzing troubleshooting data, and selecting a troubleshooting tool

Use PowerShell to test Lync Server 2010.

This objective may include but is not limited to: proactively testing connectivity and topology and using synthetic transactions

Where to Go from Here

After you pass the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring (70-664) exam, you may want to take Exam 70-665: PRO: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Administrator.