Many of you are preparing for the
Microsoft 70-331 certification exam. Well gird your loins my friends. Microsoft presents a list of skills that
need to be mastered in order to be considered prepared for that exam. As a
student, you want to consider these a checklist that should be examined with a
critical, self-examining eye. The Exam is an MCSE level exam, which means that
the Server Administration prerequisites of an MCSA are assumed for this class.
Even if you are not taking the exam, these are the skills that keep you from
having to install SharePoint multiple times or hire an outside consultant to
fix your mistakes!
Exam takers can expect multiple questions based upon
a detailed case study. In these questions you will need to select the best
answer using your understanding of the scenario and its objectives. Sometimes
you might be given examples of PowerShell code and to accomplish a given task
correctly you’ll need to put them in the correct order. Or hot areas where you have to click the
appropriate area in Central Admin to accomplish something. Case studies are
separate sections of the test that don’t allow for the ability to return to
previous case studies.
For each of the major sections of this class you
will find a checklist version of the preparation skills you need to master
along with test tips, suggested web resource links on core technologies and
details that are often known only to the subject matter experts. (We hope all
links will still be available at the URLs given). In addition, bolster your skills
– keep learning. Use your course sessions, your labs, and practice tests. Build
your own lab environment to “make it and break it” on your own. You can learn
much by using the free SharePoint Foundation server and using a trial version
of Office 365, or downloading a trial VHD that you could install on Windows 8,
Server 2012, or the free Hyper-V server installation. Read Microsoft’s
documentation as well as the pain points described in blog articles on the same
subject by professionals like yourself.
With all that said, these suggestions and links are
there to help you be the best SharePoint Core administrator you can be, test or
no test!
The official Microsoft Exam page is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-331
Here are some other things to
start with:
Session 1: Planning and Installing
SharePoint 2013
Be sure to understand the capacity of SharePoint
objects: KNOW the maximum number of content databases, site collections, web
applications in a farm, lists and libraries, site columns, application pools
per server, Managed paths per web app, maximum database size, RAM consumption
etc. Understand how to determine the amount of physical disk space and database
space needed for SharePoint with capacity planning to ensure enough throughput
for your devices. Understand how Network services like DNS, DHCP, and firewalls
support or break SharePoint. Know how to install a Workflow Manager and then
register it with Workflow Manager Client on each SharePoint WFE. In the exam
pay attention to the case studies. A word or two can make the difference. Know
how to relocate the distributed cache so it is NOT on every server in a
scripted install. Know the PowerShell cmdlets that interact with SharePoint
online as well as on premise.
·
Design a logical architecture
o
Plan
application pools
o
Plan web
applications
o
Plan for
software boundaries
o
Plan content
databases
o
Plan
host-header site collections
o
Plan zones and
alternate access mapping
·
Design a physical architecture
o
Design a
storage architecture
o
Configure basic
request Management
o
Define individual
server requirements
o
Define service
topologies
o
Plan server
load balancing
o
Plan a network
infrastructure
·
Plan a SharePoint Online (Microsoft Office 365)
deployment
o
Evaluate
service offerings
o
Plan service
applications
o
Plan site
collections
o
Plan customizations
and solutions
o
Plan security
for SharePoint Online
o
Plan networking
services for SharePoint Online
·
Plan installation
o
Identify and Configure
installation prerequisites
o
Implement
scripted deployment
o
Implement patch
slipstreaming
o
Plan and
install language packs
o
Plan and Configure
service connection points
o
Plan
installation tracking and auditing
·
Plan and Configure farm-wide settings
o
Configure
incoming and outgoing email
o
Plan and Configure
proxy groups
o
Configure
SharePoint Designer settings
o
Plan and Configure
a corporate catalog
o
Configure
Office Web Apps integration
o
Configure
Windows Azure workflow server integration
Additional resources
Session 2: Web and Service
Applications
Remember that there can only be one app site
collection per web application, but an app site collection can be published to
another web application. Farm admins can limit whether the SharePoint store is
available to end users or if they can only request an app. The HTML field
security limits the ability of certain sites to appear in content editor iframe
web parts. Know which service applications do what, and what is not (Office Web
Apps).
·
Provision and Configure web applications
o
Create Managed
paths
o
Configure HTTP
throttling
o
Configure List
throttling
o
Configure
Alternate Access Mappings (AAM)
o
Configure an
authentication provider
o
Configure
SharePoint Designer settings
·
Create and Maintain site collections
o
Configure Host
header site collections
o
Configure
self-service site creation
o
Maintain site
owners
o
Maintain site
quotas
o
Configure site
policies
o
Configure a
team mailbox
·
Manage site and site collection security
o
Manage site
access requests
o
Manage App
permissions
o
Manage
anonymous access
o
Manage
permission inheritance
o
Configure
permission levels
o
Configure HTML
field security
Additional resources
Session 3: Security
Be sure to understand Oauth based claims
authentication, classic authentication can only work through PowerShell
installation – though some BI apps only work through classic authentication.
What Azure Access Control Services are (ACS) and how to configure an ACS
connection for SharePoint Apps. Know the new sharing options for libraries.
Know the sharing for External Users option in SharePoint online. Know which
ports are associated with SQL and SharePoint and how to configure non-standard
ports. Know how to export/import/install certificates in PowerShell and how to
add a cert as a SharePoint Trusted Root Certificate Authority for Azure
Workflow Manager, SharePoint Apps, SSL, and Farm Trusts.
·
Plan and Configure authentication
o
Plan and Configure
Windows authentication
o
Plan and Configure
identity federation
o
Configure
claims providers
o
Configure site-to-site
(S2S) intra-server and OAuth authentication
o
Plan and Configure
anonymous authentication
o
Configure
connections to Access Control Service
·
Plan and Configure authorization
o
Plan and Configure
SharePoint users and groups
o
Plan and Configure
People Picker
o
Plan and Configure
sharing
o
Plan and Configure
permission inheritance
o
Plan and Configure
anonymous access
o
Plan web
application policies
·
Plan and Configure platform security
o
Plan and Configure
security isolation
o
Plan and Configure
services lockdown
o
Plan and Configure
general firewall security
o
Plan and Configure
antivirus settings
o
Plan and Configure
certificate Management
·
Plan and Configure farm-level security
o
Plan rights Management
o
Plan and Configure
delegated farm administration
o
Plan and Configure
delegated service application administration
o
Plan and Configure
Managed accounts
o
Plan and Configure
blocked file types
o
Plan and Configure
web part security
Additional resources
Session 4: Taxonomy
In this section be sure to understand the MMS
application and how it relates to columns and content types. Also make sure to
understand permissions Management for MMS. Category Pages and Catalog Item
Pages are page layouts designed to integrate with Managed Navigation. Assign
them to a term from the term driven pages tab in the Term Store Management Tool
·
Create and Configure a Managed Metadata Service
(MMS) application
o
Configure proxy
settings for Managed service applications
o
Configure
content type hub settings
o
Configure
sharing term sets
o
Plan and Configure
content type propagation schedules
o
Configure
custom properties
o
Configure term
store permissions
·
Design information architecture
o
Design an
inter-site navigational taxonomy
o
Design site
columns and content types
o
Plan
information Management policies
o
Plan Managed
site structures
o
Plan term sets
·
Manage taxonomy
o
Manage site
collection term set access
o
Manage term set
navigation
o
Manage topic
catalog pages
o
Configure
custom properties
o
Configure
search refinement
o
Configure list
refinement
Additional resources
Session 5: Search Applications
Be prepared to Configure a search server that can
integrate with an existing farm or a separate farm, how to Define internal and
external content, when to use the continuous crawl feature, and how to Manage
the enterprise search application. Managing the SEO settings enables you to define
meta tags to make the site cleaner for search engine referrals and linking. FAST
and Enterprise search is now integrated and consistent. You’ll need PowerShell
scripts to configure this well.
·
Create and Configure enterprise search
o
Plan and Configure a search topology
o
Plan and Configure content sources
o
Plan and Configure crawl schedules
o
Plan and Configure crawl rules
·
Manage search
o
Manage result sources
o
Manage query rules
o
Manage display templates
o
Manage Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) settings
o
Manage result types
o
Manage a search schema
o
Configure crawl Performance
o
Plan and Configure security trimming
Additional resources
Session 6: User Profiles and
Performance
Be aware of the new permissions model for user
displays, how the Newsfeed tool works, and when to use the Distributed Cache
Service. UPA requires MMS and Search to
function correctly.
·
Create and Configure a User Profile Service (UPA)
application
o
Configure a UPA application
o
Setup My Sites and My Site hosts
o
Configure social permissions
o
Plan and Configure sync connections
o
Configure profile properties, Configure
audiences
·
Monitor a SharePoint environment
o
Define Monitoring requirements
o
Configure Performance counter
capture
o
Configure page Performance Monitoring
o
Configure usage and health providers
o
Monitor and forecast storage needs
·
Tune and optimize a SharePoint environment
o
Plan and Configure SQL optimization
o
Execute database maintenance rules
o
Plan for capacity software
boundaries
o
Estimate storage requirements
o
Plan and Configure caching
o
Tune network Performance
·
Troubleshoot a SharePoint environment
o
Establish baseline Performance
o
Perform client-side tracing
o
Perform server-side tracing
o
Analyze usage data
o
Enable a developer dashboard
o
Analyze diagnostic logs
Additional Resources:
Other Hints for the Test Takers:
For best results on your 70-331 exam, you will
want to have done all of the following:
- Installed SharePoint via GUI and Powershell,
online and offline
- Deployed multiple SharePoint farms in a single
forest which talk to each other and share services
- Deployed Office 365 tenants using Single Sign On
- Deployed a full ADFS 2.0 infrastructure
- FULLY Configured all components of SharePoint
2013 via the GUI and Powershell
- Managed detailed Search configuration and
optimization
- Configured a Web Application to use ALL of the
authentication methods
- Configured multiple SharePoint topologies across
multiple servers using a variety of load balancing techniques
- Optimized SharePoint Servers, Services and SQL Performance
- Troubleshoot SharePoint on admin and developer
level
- Designed Highly available farms with several
disaster recovery scenarios
- SQL Admin skills – especially db management
(logs/perf/backup/restore/attach) and security
You MUST know PowerShell Cmdlets
