Passed the Exam70-321: Deploying Office 365

I passed the Microsoft new released Office 365 deployment exam on May 31, 2012. I was fortunate enough to pass the exam in my first attempt as there is no Microsoft Official study guide, course and practice exam available to date.

The exam was difficult and different from other Microsoft exams and demand hands-on experience of Office365 planning and migration.

You can build your own lab with any internet domain to get hands-on if you didn’t get the chance of deployment and administration of Office 365. Here are the high level requirements to build your own lab.

Hardware & Network

• A computer with minimum 8 GB RAM, 16 GB Recommended
• Processor with support of virtualization with Hyper-v or VMware
• Internet connection preferred with Static Public IP or use Dynamic DNS
• Internet Domain Name e.g. contoso.com

Software & Server Roles

• Office 365 Trial Account
• Internet Domain Name
• PKI Certificates from Public Issuer for ADFS and Sigle Sign-on
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 Media (Trial or TechNet)
• Active Directory Domain Services (Domain Controller)
• Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (Federation Server and Proxy Server)
• Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Servers (Mailbox, HUB, CAS, UM, Edge Roles)
• Office 365 Directory Synchronization Toolhttp://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-enterprises/ff652543.aspx

The exam was mixture of all technologies related to Microsoft Office 365 i.e. Exchange Server, Lync Server, SharePoint, ADFS, DNS Records, PKI Requirements, licensing, service plans etc. The skills being measured in exam can be found at:

Exam70-321: Deploying Office 365: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-321&Locale=en-us

I used following material to prepare the exam and will be helpful if you are planning to appear in the exam:


Office 365 Deployment Guide for Enterprises:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852466.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26509


Office 365 Price and Plans:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx#fbid=rs0_2zmoatb


Office 365 Help: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-enterprises/default.aspx


Windows PowerShell in Office 365: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-enterprises/hh125001.aspx


Windows PowerShell cmdlets for Office 365: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-enterprises/hh125002.aspx