How I Passed the CompTIA Server+ Exam (Everything you need to know about the Server+ Certificate)

Hey guys. Welcome to my channel. My name is Paul Lamine. I eat this apple.

Whatever you choose to go is fine with me.

And today, we're going to talk about how I studied for and passed the CompTIA Server+.

If you're looking to pass the CompTIA Server+, then this video might

just be for you. So make sure you stick around.

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don't miss a thing. With that being said,

let's go ahead. Let's get started. Let's talk about this bad boy.

[Music].

Okay, guys. So the first thing we're going to talk about, as always, is

the book that I use for the Server+.

So this is the book that I used to study for the Server+.

I will include the link in the description box below for this so

you guys that do want to buy it.

It's a pretty good book, as always. I love

books that go according to the exam objectives,

and this one was no different.

Fun fact: while I was studying for this,

I was actually sick. So, like, while I was sick,

I would pick up my book when I felt a little bit better, and I'm like, "Oh."

I'm just going through it. The struggle is real, but we got to get these

certificates no matter what. Right? So yeah.

But anyways, this is the book that I used to study for the certificate.

I did take the SK004. There's the SK005 out now.

I'm going to talk about that a little bit during the video when we talk about

the website and different other components that I use or different other

things that I used to study for the exam.

But I did study--I used--I studied for the SK004, not the SK005. Something to keep in mind.

I think that version is going to be retired in December of this year, so that's

something to keep in mind. But this is the book that I used

for the exam. It's a pretty good book. It's a pretty nice book.

It is pretty well put together. It's right according to the exam objectives.

There were some mistakes, and I'm--I'm not--

my first language is not English.

So I was able to tell there is a mistake in the book itself.

So that's something that I had to look past because there's not much

material for the SK004. That was a struggle for me, trying to find material

for the SK004, trying to find good books for the SK004.

And this was the only one that I could find that had a really good review

that goes exactly according to the exam objectives.

Because when I normally buy them, I go to

Amazon and I look inside--kind of like the preview

feature of it--and try to see, hey, this goes according to the exam objectives.

And it does a pretty good job at going according to the exam objectives.

And it was a really good book.

It was a really--it was an easy read for me because I'm quite familiar

with servers. But one of the things that

I wanted to make very clear--or one of the

things that I want to make very clear--is that the whole certificate itself

is not so much focused on services. It's not so much focused on

understanding, like, the internal--well, not so much internal--like

the service part of the server. Like, hey,

what does a DNS do? Hey, what does a DHCP do?

Hey, how do you set up and configure group policy to do specific things?

Or an example of trying to do something with group policy or trying to

use different services on the server? It talks about them a little bit.

It gets you to understand different

parts of, like, server management and tries

to understand what those services are capable of.

But it doesn't go into detail about, like, hey,

this is DNS, and this is like the nitty-gritty that you need to know

about DNS. It's kind of like top--very top level--hey, this is what it does.

Let's go back to server hardware.

Alright? So it's very focused on server hardware. It's very focused on

getting you to understand the way servers are

internally, how to take them apart, how to

put them together, what are some of the

things that you have to look for, what really makes

a server work in terms of, like, hey, you turn it on, it's on, but what

really goes on before it turns on? That kind of thing. So it touches

base on a lot of the physical parts of a server, but not so much like

the technical part. Let's just say that the technical part of

understanding the services in the server--

it doesn't touch--it doesn't go into that much detail about it. But anyway,

this is the book that I use. Great book, easy read. For those of you

guys that are already familiar with servers, this is going to be a breeze.

It's just going to talk about--for those of you guys that played around with

servers a lot--it's going to talk about

different components. It's going to

talk about different things. Even when I was taking the test,

I was going through the test and I'm like, oh, okay. Well, I know that. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. Of course, I know that. Because I've played around with--

I've played around with servers a lot. I have a server here.

I have servers on-prem at my job.

I know that everything is moving to the cloud right now, and that's the case

from even my job itself. But the ability to be

able to understand how a server works in case you want to work for,

like, a data center, that's very vital.

So for those of you that work at a data center--

those of you guys that have to kind of play around with servers--

because people now always talk about how

everything is moving to the cloud. But the truth of the matter is somebody,

somewhere, somehow, some technician is playing

around with their servers--playing around with the servers

that provide the cloud for everybody else. Right?

So if that's the route that you want to go and

you want to walk in a data center, this certificate is a great certificate

to have because it teaches you a lot

about understanding the components that you need to understand for

managing a server that allows you to manage your server a lot better.

But anyway, that's the book that I use for it. So now let's go ahead and talk

about some of the other materials that I used to study for Server+.

Okay, guys. So let's take a detailed look at the exam itself, some of the other

materials that I used besides the book.

We're going to talk about the book again a little bit here.

But let's go ahead and dive into the whole thing and see some

of the materials that I used--some of the other materials that I used

to study for the exam other than the book.

So the first thing we're going to look at, as always, is the

exam page. So this is the exam page for those of you guys that want to take a

look at it. I will include the link in the description box below.

Let's talk about a couple of things.

So the SK004, which is the one that I took--this guy right here--it's

going to be retired December of 2021.

Now, the SK005 is going to take over.

So now, when they say "retire," they don't necessarily mean that

you're going to have to retire--if you have the SK004, you're going to have to take the SK005.

No. One thing about this exam, as I said earlier,

the exam itself is good for life.

So a lot of these exams, if you've been in IT

for a while, you know a lot of the exams--

when you take them--you need to kind of renew them after three years.

Most of them after three years. Some of them have a little bit of

a lengthier time. Some of them have, like, two years.

Some of them have, like, three years.

For the most part, most of the exams that

I've taken, you have to renew them.

On most of the exams that I have, you have

to renew most of the certificates that I have.

You have to renew them, like, around that two to three-year time.

So, for this one, it's kind of like a good-for-life kind of exam. If you take

it, you pass it, you don't have to renew it.

And then I think a lot of things factor into that.

One, because it's servers. Servers don't change that much.

But also, you know, a lot of the day-to-day IT tends to move to the cloud anyways.

So a lot of people don't get to play with servers that often.

A lot of people don't have kind of like that on-prem

kind of setup. I have been fortunate enough to have something like that, and

I've been fortunate enough to play around with a lot of servers. But now

there's a lot of people that just have straight-up, like, cloud, and

kind of just go from there. So they don't

get to touch a lot of servers and things like that.

And the servers don't change that much either.

So that's probably why it's kind of like a lifetime thing--good-for-life kind of

certificate. So if we scroll down a little bit, you can see that,

July, this one came out in 2015. This is the one that I took--

the SK004. The new one is already out.

This one is going to be available till December of this year,

and this one is already available. So if you want to study for it now--

I don't think there's that much material,

because even finding material for this to study for was a bit of a headache.

It was--it was quite challenging to find material for it.

Thanks to ITPRO.TV, I had a good course for it.

So that was good there.

But it was hard to find material for this. I don't think that there's that much

material out for this one yet, but we're going to take a look at it.

It's 100 questions. Maximum of 100 questions.

You're going to have about--it's a maximum of 100 questions, but

I don't think they're necessary. I can't remember how many questions I had.

They're not going to give you 100 questions.

Most likely, they're going to give you performance-based questions and

some other questions--that kind of thing.

So it's a bit of a mixture. 90 minutes. 90 questions. Maximum of 100.

There you go. So maximum of 100, but you have about 90

questions and performance-based questions included in it.

Multiple choice. You know, because I did a

performance-based question--90 minutes.

So you have one minute for each question.

They kind of highlight some of the things that you need to know here.

You don't necessarily--if you play with servers a lot--you don't necessarily

need to have the A+ certification. I do have the A+, but you don't necessarily need to

have the A+ to go take it. If you've played around with servers for

several years or several months, you should be able to read up on it and

try to understand some of the concepts and be able to pass the exam.

The exam, of course, is $338, which

is quite expensive like a lot of other exams.

And, of course, if you scroll down, there's

the bundle. Of course, if you want the

retake voucher, if you want more stuff, you pay more.

But for one voucher and just the voucher itself, it's $338.

And like always, you can go to the Comp Academy website and

get a discount on this.

So as far as the website page goes, that's pretty much all you get for it.

So moving on to the exam objective. Now this is the

SK005, and this is the SK004. Again, I took the SK004,

but I want to kind of compare the two

a little bit for those of you guys that are going to take the SK005.

Of course, if you want to take the SK004, you have till December,

which I think is way more than enough time

to study for it. But, again, that's just me.

I don't know what other people have going on in their life. Right?

But anyways, this is the SK004: server architecture, server

administration, storage, security, network, disaster recovery, troubleshooting.

One of the things that I found about this exam--like

I said when I was talking about the book that I used to study for--

it’s very hardware-focused. It's not so much like

services like DHCP service, or this service, or that service.

Like, how do you really get nitty and gritty, like, in there

in terms of the services on the server

themselves? They do talk about them, but

they talk about them in a higher--like, well, I don't want to say in a higher

level, because a higher level means that they talk about them.

And then they kind of just touch on them a little bit.

Like, hey, this is what a DHCP service is, and this

is what it does. But they don't really go into too much detail about it.

Or, hey, this is what a DNS service is, and this is what it does.

But they don't go into extreme detail about it. So that's one thing to keep in mind.

That's what I found about this exam.

If there's one thing that was disappointing to me--

I wouldn't call it disappointing--but if there's one thing that I felt like they

could have touched on a little bit more, it's to go in-depth,

like, really in-depth about the services. But they did not.

They just kind of covered it. And CompTIA is kind of like, you know,

it's not specific to one vendor. So they have to cover as much as they can about servers.

So that's why they just kind of go like, "Hey,

these are the things that we feel like you need to know about a server.

Here you go." I say it doesn't go into too much detail about things.

Even troubleshooting--they kind of focus on troubleshooting the hardware

part of things as well, not so much the, you know, services,

servers, and all that stuff. They do talk

about a whole bunch of other stuff as well, but it's not too,

like, you know, kind of hands-on in terms of services and

the programs on the server itself. It's very hands-on

in terms of the physical part of the server and understanding different

components of the server and things that you need to know in that regard.

So this is the outline for the SK004, which is the one that I took.

And then this is the SK005. A little bit shorter, but it seems as if they're

moving towards server hardware installation and management.

Pretty much the same.

They did talk about installation in the SK004.

Management--let's see--maybe they're moving towards that, because

that's good. So maybe this new one, the management part,

they're moving towards, like, kind of really understanding the services.

So maybe that's good. So they have this part here.

The management part seems to be new, so

maybe they're moving towards that.

So that's good news there. Server administration--same thing there.

Security and disaster recovery.

I can't say that--disaster recovery. Disaster recovery and security--

they kind of bonded that together and made that as one.

Troubleshooting, of course, they have troubleshooting here as well.

So pretty much some of the same concepts.

So, like I said, for the most part, you can see that they're

very heavily focused on understanding the physical part of the server.

I think the certificate, as I said earlier, is much more geared towards people

that want to work at a data center or try

to understand what a server does in terms of different

components of the server--so you know how to troubleshoot it and fix it if

something goes wrong, the physical part of it. And, of course, if you want to

be much more granular and say, "Hey, I want to understand the services,"

you're going to have to move to, like, maybe a Microsoft-specific certificate

to be able to get that there. But for this one, they're just kind of

trying to get you to understand what a

server is and what it does and how to take it apart and kind of put it back

together--that kind of thing. So you have different components here.

It teaches you about what a 1U, a 2U, or 4U server is. It teaches you about

all of these things that you need to know about different server architecture.

It teaches you about server administration. So, as I said here, it

talks about a lot of the stuff--BIOS and UEFI configuration.

But it doesn't go into in-depth configuration; it teaches you

about the basics and some of the things that you need to know.

And it touches a little bit, too, on Linux servers.

Even here and there, you could say it touches a

little bit on Linux servers and things like that, but it's not so much focused on Linux servers.

It talks about it, but it doesn't really dive in-depth into

Linux servers and all that stuff.

So, different components here.

Not much difference between the SK004 and the SK005.

The management part, I think, is

the one difference. Maybe they're kind of, as I said, moving more toward

teaching you how to manage it.

And, as I said, it was a struggle to find material for the SK004.

But, as always, ITPRO.TV to the rescue--and this was helpful to me.

I said it was a struggle to find material, but I went to ITPRO.TV and they

were like, "We got you. We got you, man. We got it."

If you need it, we got you. So, this video course was pretty, pretty, pretty damn helpful.

Don Pezet--you know, for my Linux+ certificate, he was the guy

teaching the Linux course. Amazing teacher, man.

This guy--this guy is also a pretty amazing teacher.

A+, Security+, he teaches a lot. It covers a lot of those things.

Don Pezet is a great teacher, man. I'm going to enjoy his courses.

So, when I saw this and I saw that, hey--he's the teacher now--I was like, "Let's go."

So, yeah, it pretty much goes according to the

exam objectives: server administration, security, networking, and all this other stuff.

So, every component, every part of the exam objectives,

ITPRO.TV kind of covers that step by step, which is pretty cool.

It made my life so much easier.

So, that's one thing to keep in mind. Definitely, if you're looking

to get the book, ITPRO.TV did a great job in terms of covering all of the

exam objectives--everything that you need to know.

I support about 92% of it because, again, I work with servers

on a day-to-day basis. I’ve played around

with servers a lot. I have a server sitting over there that acts as my Type 1.

I have a voice server over there. If you guys are not new to the channel, you've already seen it.

And I’ve played around with it a lot. I take it apart. I put it back together.

I mean, I've done a whole bunch of stuff with servers. I'm quite familiar with servers.

So, I watched up to 92% of it. It's a 28-hour, 15-minute video. So, I pretty much watched all of it.

Yeah. So I pretty much watched all of it.

And then, of course, you do have the practice test,

and you have the virtual lab.

The virtual lab is really cool. The virtual lab really goes hands-on

in terms of the services part of things.

So, the concept--the services part of things--

the concepts that you need to understand, like what DNS is, what DHCP is,

what group policy is--that kind of thing--the virtual lab does a good job of

covering all the concepts that you see here,

all of the things that they talk about here.

It does a good job at giving you that,

you know, “Hey, let's go practice it a little bit.” So, I'm going to click on it.

Hopefully, ITPRO.TV doesn't sue me.

But, anyways, yeah. As you can see, it has a lot of things. When you click

on it, it takes you to the lab. I don't want to launch the lab.

I don't want to get into trouble there.

But if you click on it, it takes you to the lab, and then the lab outlines

all the things that you can do to help you better understand it.

I pretty much did all of the labs, even though I'm quite familiar with it.

You know, I don’t miss anything, man. I take as much as I can get.

And then, of course, the practice test. Again, this is why I love ITPRO.TV--

everything in one place. You have the practice test, you click

on it, and it gives you the exam. As you can see, I took it several times.

That was my average score when I was still taking it.

I took it several times. So you get to practice a lot. You get to understand

some of the questions that are going to come in. It's a really good platform.

I know that for all of my exams, I used ITPRO.TV--but I used other places

as well. But for this exam, I couldn't find anything else.

I had to use ITPRO.TV. So, let's go back there.

Anyway, ITPRO.TV--great. They have a great course for the SK004.

I don't know if they're going to come

out with SK005. They don't have the SK005 yet.

But, again, you have until December to take it, so you have some time.

So, it's a great place to look at if you want

to take the SK004--which you have until

December to take, so you have a pretty long time.

I did try to find some courses on Udemy.

I did try to see if I could go from there as well. I didn't find that much.

I did find some courses, however, on--what is it called?--LinkedIn. Yeah.

LinkedIn has kind of a learning platform, and they have

a good series of courses there that you can look at

that teach you the Server+ part of things and break it down into different components.

So, if you're into that, you can go to LinkedIn and search

for Server+, and they have something to cover it.

For Udemy, it was just mostly practice exams.

I didn’t see any course that had to do with Server+.

This is what I was saying, man. I was so grateful that

ITPRO.TV kind of had this whole thing in one place,

so it was easier for me. But with Udemy,

it was more so practice tests than anything. They didn't have any

video course for it, which is sad.

Hopefully, someone comes out with an

SK005 video course because, you know, for

those of us who decide to take the Server+,

it's kind of sad if you don't have enough money to pay for ITPRO.TV.

You’d have to pay for either LinkedIn

or do something else, and you don’t have places like Udemy that have it.

But other places have it too. So, if it's something that you plan to go for,

check LinkedIn. ITPRO.TV is my number one recommendation.

If you want practice tests, you can check over here. You can check Udemy over here.

So that's pretty much it, guys. I think we've covered the book.

We've covered the exam objectives. We've talked about the video material, the practice test, the lab that I used.

And we've talked about some of the hard times I had trying to find

material for it. It was hard for me to find material, but I did find some.

ITPRO.TV helped a lot. The exam itself was pretty good. It was a good exam.

I'm quite familiar with servers--not everything in terms of services and all that stuff.

And that's one of the reasons why I decided to take this exam--because I

wanted to strengthen my understanding not just of the

services part of things, but of the components part of things as well, and

understand it. Because when you understand something as a whole,

it makes your life a lot easier--and then it's one day at a time. Alright?

So, it was a good exam. It was an interesting exam. And the plus

is, I don't have to renew it. I got it for life, so I can't complain there.

Anyways, thank you guys for watching.

That's pretty much it. I will see you guys in the next one.

Thank you for watching the video, guys. If you haven't

done so already, make sure you hit the

thumbs up button if you enjoyed the video.

If you want to see cool videos like this all the time, make sure you hit the

subscribe button. I have a lot of big plans for this channel. I want to

show you guys my struggles because it's

not only about coming here and talking

about, like, "Hey, I passed these exams."

I do want to make this channel a little bit different.

I want you guys to actually see me go through all the struggles that I have

to go through to study for each and every one of these

exams. I have a whole bunch of certificates that I have to take.

Especially this year, I'm planning to take, like, three more certificates--

maybe two--because the year is almost halfway through.

We're almost halfway through the year.

But I'm going to come out with a video on

Friday--next week Friday--that talks about "The Plan."

That’s actually what I'm going to call

it: "The Plan," which is going to highlight the plan for the rest of the year.

And I'm going to take you guys through every single process--the struggle,

the not wanting to study, the not wanting to do certain things.

All that process--I want to take you guys through it because I want

everybody out there struggling like me to kind of

work their way up in IT later--to know that you're not the only one struggling,

to know that we all struggle to get to this day, but we all struggle to learn and to move forward.

So, it's going to be an interesting channel.

So, if you want to see all of those, make sure you hit the subscribe button

and turn on notifications. And, as always, thank you guys for

watching, and do not forget to stay gigging. Peace.