Pass Your Microsoft MCSE 70-342 Exam Easy!

Microsoft 70-342 (Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013) exam dumps vce, practice test questions, study guide & video training course to study and pass quickly and easily. Microsoft 70-342 Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 exam dumps & practice test questions and answers. You need avanset vce exam simulator in order to study the Microsoft MCSE 70-342 certification exam dumps & Microsoft MCSE 70-342 practice test questions in vce format.

Mastering the 70-342 Exam: Site Resiliency and Unified Messaging

The 70-342 Exam, Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, was a pinnacle certification for messaging administrators, signifying the highest level of expertise in designing and managing complex Exchange environments. This exam was one of two exams required to earn the prestigious Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Messaging credential for the 2013 platform. Unlike its prerequisite exam which focused on core administration, the 70-342 Exam delved into advanced topics such as high availability, site resiliency, security, compliance, and coexistence with other systems.

Passing this exam required not just practical, hands-on skill, but also a deep theoretical understanding of the architectural decisions that underpin a robust and scalable messaging infrastructure. Preparation involved moving beyond day-to-day tasks to master the intricacies of features like Database Availability Groups, Unified Messaging, and hybrid deployments. This five-part series will serve as a comprehensive guide to the advanced topics covered, starting with the critical areas of site resiliency and the integration of voice messaging, both of which were cornerstones of the 70-342 Exam.

The Value of MCSE Messaging Certification

In the era of Exchange Server 2013, achieving the MCSE: Messaging certification by passing the 70-342 Exam was a significant professional accomplishment. It validated an IT professional's ability to not only administer an Exchange organization but to design, deploy, and manage advanced, enterprise-scale solutions. This certification was a clear indicator to employers of an individual's expertise in ensuring the security, availability, and compliance of the company's most critical communication platform. It often led to senior roles, increased responsibilities, and greater career opportunities in the field of messaging and collaboration.

For businesses, having MCSE-certified professionals on staff provided confidence that their messaging infrastructure was in capable hands. These experts were equipped to design solutions that could withstand site-level disasters, meet stringent legal and regulatory compliance requirements, and smoothly integrate with cloud services. The in-depth knowledge required to pass the 70-342 Exam translated directly into more reliable, secure, and efficient messaging systems, maximizing uptime and protecting sensitive corporate data. This expertise was crucial for navigating the increasing complexity of enterprise IT environments.

Introduction to Site Resiliency

A core theme of the 70-342 Exam was the concept of site resiliency. This goes beyond simple high availability, which protects against local failures like a single server or disk failure. Site resiliency is the ability of an organization's messaging service to survive a complete failure of a primary datacenter. In Exchange Server 2013, the primary technology for achieving both high availability and site resiliency is the Database Availability Group, or DAG. The DAG was a significant evolution from previous versions of Exchange, providing a robust framework for mailbox database replication and automated failover.

Designing for site resiliency involves strategically placing Mailbox servers, which are members of a DAG, into multiple physical locations or datacenters. By maintaining copies of the mailbox databases in these different sites, you ensure that if one site becomes completely unavailable due to a power outage, natural disaster, or other catastrophic event, a database copy in a secondary site can be activated, and messaging services can be restored with minimal data loss and downtime.

Planning a Multi-Site DAG Architecture

Properly planning a multi-site DAG is a complex task that requires careful consideration of network, storage, and server placement. This level of design was a key focus of the 70-342 Exam. A crucial element of the plan is the network infrastructure between the datacenters. The network must have sufficient bandwidth and low enough latency to support the continuous replication of transaction logs between the database copies. High latency can lead to replication backlogs and increase the risk of data loss in a failover scenario.

Another critical planning component is the placement of the witness server. A DAG with an even number of members requires a witness server to act as a tie-breaker for quorum purposes, ensuring that a "split-brain" scenario does not occur. In a multi-site DAG, the witness server should be placed in a third, separate location to ensure that it is not affected by a disaster in either of the primary datacenters. The 70-342 Exam would expect you to understand these design principles and their impact on the resilience of the solution.

Configuring and Managing Database Availability Groups (DAGs)

Beyond the planning phase, the 70-342 Exam required hands-on knowledge of configuring and managing a DAG. A DAG is essentially an object in Active Directory that represents a boundary of up to 16 Mailbox servers. Creating the DAG itself is a simple process using the Exchange Administration Center (EAC) or PowerShell. The more involved tasks include adding Mailbox server members to the DAG, configuring the DAG's networks for replication and MAPI traffic, and creating the mailbox database copies.

Once the DAG is operational, ongoing management tasks include monitoring the health and replication status of the database copies. You must use tools like the Test-ReplicationHealth and Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to ensure that all copies are healthy, copy queues are low, and the system is prepared for a potential failover. Understanding how to interpret the output of these commands and how to troubleshoot common replication issues was a key skill for the 70-342 Exam.

Performing Site-Level Switchovers and Failovers

The ultimate test of a site-resilient design is the ability to perform a datacenter switchover. The 70-342 Exam would test your knowledge of this critical procedure. A switchover is a planned event, for instance, when you need to perform maintenance on the primary datacenter. It involves a series of ordered steps to gracefully move all active messaging services from one site to another. This includes activating the database copies in the secondary site and updating the client access and mail flow endpoints to point to the new location.

A failover, on the other hand, is an unplanned event that occurs when the primary datacenter fails unexpectedly. In this scenario, the recovery process is more urgent. A key feature in Exchange 2013 that aids in this process is Datacenter Activation Coordination (DAC) mode. When a DAG is in DAC mode, it prevents database mounting on startup if the server cannot contact its fellow DAG members, which helps to prevent the split-brain issues that can occur in a multi-site failover scenario.

Designing and Configuring Unified Messaging (UM)

Unified Messaging (UM) was a significant feature set in Exchange Server 2013 that integrated voicemail and other telephony services directly into a user's mailbox. A deep understanding of UM architecture and configuration was a major domain of the 70-342 Exam. UM allowed users to receive their voicemails as audio files in their inbox, listen to them on their phone, and use features like voice access to their calendar and contacts. It required complex integration with a company's telephony system, such as a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) or an IP-PBX.

The design process involved creating the necessary UM components in Exchange. This included the UM Dial Plan, which defines the telephony settings for a group of users, and the UM IP Gateway, which represents the physical PBX or VoIP gateway. You also had to configure UM Auto Attendants, which provide automated menu systems to handle incoming calls, and UM Mailbox Policies, which control the features and security settings for UM-enabled users.

Managing UM Mailboxes and Services

Once the UM infrastructure was designed, the 70-342 Exam required you to know how to manage the day-to-day operations. This included enabling individual mailboxes for Unified Messaging and associating them with the correct UM Mailbox Policy and Dial Plan. When a user is UM-enabled, Exchange generates a default PIN for them to access their voicemail over the phone, and the administrator must communicate this to the user.

Managing the UM services on the Exchange servers themselves was also critical. The Unified Messaging Call Router service, which ran on the Client Access servers, was responsible for accepting the initial SIP calls from the IP gateway and redirecting them to the appropriate Mailbox server. The Unified Messaging service, running on the Mailbox servers, was responsible for the actual processing of the calls, such as recording voicemails and playing back messages to the user.

Troubleshooting Unified Messaging

Given its complexity and its reliance on integration with external telephony systems, troubleshooting Unified Messaging was a key skill for the 70-342 Exam. Common issues included calls failing to connect, poor audio quality, or features like Auto Attendant not functioning correctly. Troubleshooting these issues required a methodical approach and the use of specific diagnostic tools.

The Exchange Management Shell provided several cmdlets for testing UM functionality, such as Test-UMConnectivity, which could be used to diagnose issues with the communication between the Exchange servers and the IP gateways. You also needed to be proficient in analyzing the call logs and traces generated by the UM services. Often, the issue was related to a misconfiguration of the certificates used to secure the SIP communication or a firewall blocking the necessary ports between the Exchange servers and the telephony equipment.

Implementing Advanced Security for Exchange

Securing the messaging environment is a paramount responsibility for any Exchange administrator, and the 70-342 Exam placed a heavy emphasis on the advanced security features available in Exchange Server 2013. This went far beyond basic anti-malware and anti-spam protection. It encompassed a multi-layered approach to protect data both in transit and at rest, control how information is shared, and prevent the leakage of sensitive corporate information. The exam required a deep understanding of the technologies used to achieve these goals.

Key security pillars that were tested on the 70-342 Exam included the sophisticated rules engine of the transport service, the native data loss prevention capabilities, the integration with rights management services for message encryption, and the granular, role-based access control model for delegating administrative permissions. Mastering these features was essential for designing and maintaining a secure and compliant messaging system that could meet the stringent demands of modern enterprises.

Designing and Configuring Transport Rules

Transport rules, also known as mail flow rules, are a powerful tool for inspecting and taking action on messages as they pass through the transport pipeline on Exchange servers. A thorough knowledge of how to create and manage these rules was a core competency for the 70-342 Exam. These rules are processed by the Transport service on both Mailbox and Edge Transport servers and provide a flexible way to enforce corporate messaging policies.

A transport rule consists of three main parts: a condition, an exception, and an action. The condition specifies what to look for in a message, such as specific words in the subject or body, whether the sender is internal or external, or if the message has an attachment. The action specifies what to do with the message if the condition is met, such as blocking it, redirecting it to a manager for approval, or appending a legal disclaimer. The exception provides a way to exclude certain messages from the rule's action.

Implementing Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Data Loss Prevention, or DLP, was a major new feature in Exchange Server 2013 and a critical topic for the 70-342 Exam. DLP is a premium feature built on top of the transport rules engine that is designed to help organizations prevent users from accidentally or maliciously sending sensitive information outside the company. It works by using deep content analysis to inspect emails and attachments for specific types of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, or other personally identifiable information.

Exchange 2013 came with a set of pre-built DLP policy templates based on common regulatory standards like PCI-DSS and HIPAA. An administrator could use these templates as a starting point or create a custom DLP policy from scratch. When a user attempts to send an email that violates a DLP policy, the system can take several actions, including blocking the message, requiring justification, or simply notifying the user with a Policy Tip in Outlook that they may be sending sensitive information.

Managing In-Place Archiving and Retention Policies

Meeting corporate governance and regulatory compliance requirements often involves retaining email for a specific period and providing users with an archive for their older messages. The 70-342 Exam required a deep understanding of the features in Exchange 2013 for managing this data lifecycle. In-Place Archiving provides each user with a secondary archive mailbox that appears alongside their primary mailbox in Outlook. Users can manually move items to their archive, or an administrator can create policies to do it automatically.

This automation is achieved through retention policies. A retention policy is a collection of retention tags. A retention tag can define how long an item should be kept, and the action to take when that period expires, such as moving it to the archive or permanently deleting it. You can create different tags for different folders and allow users to apply personal tags to individual items. This provides a flexible and powerful framework for managing the email lifecycle without relying on cumbersome PST files.

Configuring In-Place eDiscovery and Hold

When legal or investigative matters arise, organizations need a way to search for and preserve relevant email data. The 70-342 Exam tested the advanced In-Place eDiscovery and Hold features of Exchange 2013. In-Place eDiscovery allows authorized personnel, such as a legal or compliance officer, to perform searches across all mailboxes in the organization from a single interface in the Exchange Administration Center. Searches can be based on keywords, dates, senders, and other criteria.

Once the relevant data is found, it can be placed on an In-Place Hold. This feature preserves all items that match the hold criteria, preventing users from modifying or deleting them. It even preserves items that a user deletes from their Deleted Items folder. This is a critical feature for legal discovery. The 70-342 Exam would also expect you to know the difference between an In-Place Hold, which is query-based, and a Litigation Hold, which preserves the entire contents of a mailbox for an indefinite period.

Understanding Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

In large organizations, it is not feasible or secure for every administrator to have full control over the entire Exchange environment. The Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model provides a granular way to delegate specific administrative permissions. A complete understanding of the RBAC model and its components was a mandatory topic for the 70-342 Exam. The model is based on assigning management roles to administrators, which grant them the ability to perform specific tasks.

The key components of RBAC are management roles, which are collections of cmdlets an administrator can run; management role groups, which are security groups that you can assign roles to; and management role assignment policies, which control the level of access end-users have to manage their own mailbox settings. By using RBAC, you can create a tiered administrative model, for example, giving help desk staff the ability to manage distribution groups without giving them the power to create databases or configure servers.

Configuring and Managing IRM with AD RMS

To protect the content of emails even after they have been delivered, Exchange 2013 integrates with Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS). This integration, and its configuration, was an advanced security topic on the 70-342 Exam. Information Rights Management (IRM) allows users to apply persistent, rights-based protection to their emails. For example, a user can send an email and apply a template that prevents the recipients from forwarding, printing, or copying the content of the message.

The configuration involves setting up a trust between the Exchange organization and the AD RMS cluster. Once configured, Exchange can automatically apply IRM protection to messages using transport rules, and Outlook users can apply protection templates manually. Exchange also enables IRM in Outlook Web App and can decrypt protected messages for journaling and eDiscovery purposes, ensuring that IRM does not interfere with the organization's compliance requirements.

Auditing and Reporting in Exchange 2013

Auditing is a critical component of a secure and compliant messaging system. The 70-342 Exam required knowledge of the auditing capabilities within Exchange 2013. There are two main types of auditing: administrator audit logging and mailbox audit logging. Administrator audit logging records every single administrative action that is performed in the Exchange environment, whether through the EAC or the Exchange Management Shell. This provides a clear audit trail of who made what change and when.

Mailbox audit logging, on the other hand, tracks actions performed by mailbox owners, delegates, or administrators against a specific mailbox. You can configure it to log events such as when an item is deleted, when a delegate sends a message on behalf of the owner, or when an administrator accesses a user's mailbox. These logs are essential for security investigations and for meeting certain compliance mandates. You must know how to enable these logs and how to search and export the audit data.

Planning for Coexistence with Older Exchange Versions

In the real world, upgrading an entire Exchange organization is rarely a single, instantaneous event. More often, it is a phased process that involves a period of coexistence, where the new version of Exchange runs alongside an older version. The 70-342 Exam placed significant emphasis on an administrator's ability to plan for and manage these complex coexistence scenarios. Specifically for Exchange 2013, this involved understanding how to integrate with Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2007.

The planning process required a deep understanding of how the different versions would interact. A key concept was the flow of client traffic. In an Exchange 2013 and 2010 coexistence, all client connections would be directed to the Exchange 2013 Client Access servers. If a user's mailbox was still on an Exchange 2010 server, the Exchange 2013 CAS would proxy the connection back to the appropriate Exchange 2010 server. This required careful planning of namespaces, certificates, and load balancing.

Managing Coexistence with Exchange 2007/2010

The hands-on management of a coexistence environment was a key skill for the 70-342 Exam. This involved not just client access, but also mail flow. During coexistence, mail flow between the different versions of Exchange is handled automatically through the Active Directory site topology. However, you had to ensure that all connectors for sending and receiving mail to and from the internet were properly configured to route through the correct servers, typically the newer Exchange 2013 servers.

Another critical aspect of managing coexistence was the movement of mailboxes. Mailbox moves from Exchange 2007 and 2010 to Exchange 2013 were performed online, meaning the user could remain connected to their mailbox for most of the process. This was a significant improvement over older migration methods. For the 70-342 Exam, you needed to understand how to use the batch migration tools in the Exchange Administration Center and PowerShell to manage and troubleshoot these mailbox moves.

Introduction to Exchange Hybrid Deployment

One of the most important and complex topics on the 70-342 Exam was the Exchange hybrid deployment. A hybrid deployment creates a seamless integration between your on-premises Exchange Server 2013 organization and the Exchange Online service in Microsoft 365. This allows an organization to have a single, unified messaging environment where some mailboxes are located on-premises and some are located in the cloud. Users in a hybrid setup can share a common address book, free/busy calendar information, and a unified mail flow domain.

This model provides a flexible path to the cloud, allowing organizations to migrate their mailboxes to Exchange Online at their own pace. It also enables long-term coexistence for companies that may need to keep some mailboxes on-premises for regulatory or business reasons. Designing and managing a hybrid deployment required a deep understanding of both on-premises Exchange and the Exchange Online service, making it a truly advanced topic.

Configuring the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW)

The primary tool for setting up a hybrid deployment is the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW). A thorough knowledge of this wizard and the components it configures was mandatory for the 70-342 Exam. The HCW is a downloadable application that automates many of the complex configuration steps required to establish the hybrid relationship. It performs tasks such as creating the federation trust between your on-premises Active Directory and the cloud identity platform, which is essential for sharing free/busy information.

The HCW also configures the mail flow connectors in both the on-premises organization and in Exchange Online. These secure connectors ensure that mail can flow seamlessly and securely between the two environments, and that messages sent between them are treated as internal, preserving things like Outlook out-of-office messages. The wizard also configures the settings for online mailbox moves and updates the web services URLs to ensure proper client redirection.

Managing Mail flow in a Hybrid Environment

After the HCW has been run, an administrator must understand how to manage and troubleshoot mail flow in the hybrid environment. This was a key scenario for the 70-342 Exam. You have two main options for routing internet-bound mail: centralized mail flow and decentralized mail flow. In a centralized mail flow model, all outbound mail from both on-premises and Exchange Online mailboxes is routed through the on-premises Exchange servers before being sent to the internet. This is often used by organizations that have complex on-premises transport rules or compliance appliances.

In a decentralized model, Exchange Online mailboxes send their outbound mail directly to the internet. The choice of which model to use depends on the organization's specific security and compliance requirements. You must also understand how inbound mail is routed, which typically involves pointing your domain's MX record to either your on-premises environment or to Exchange Online Protection.

Troubleshooting Hybrid Mail flow and Connectivity

Given the number of components involved, troubleshooting a hybrid deployment was a critical skill for the 70-342 Exam. Common issues included mail flow problems, where messages get stuck in queues, and free/busy lookups failing between on-premises and cloud users. Troubleshooting mail flow often involved using the message tracking logs in both environments and carefully examining the headers of a message to see the path it has taken and where it might have failed.

Free/busy issues were often related to problems with the federation trust, Autodiscover, or Exchange Web Services (EWS) connectivity. An administrator would need to use tools like the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer to test the connectivity to their on-premises Autodiscover and EWS endpoints from the internet. Understanding how these different services interact to provide a seamless user experience was essential for diagnosing and resolving hybrid connectivity problems.

Planning and Executing Mailbox Migrations to Exchange Online

The primary reason for many organizations to set up a hybrid deployment is to migrate their mailboxes to Exchange Online. The 70-342 Exam required a deep understanding of this migration process. In a hybrid deployment, this is known as a remote mailbox move or an onboarding migration. It uses the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) in both environments to move the contents of the mailbox over a secure connection.

The process is managed from the Exchange Administration Center in either the on-premises or the cloud environment. You can create migration batches to move groups of users at the same time. The move process is performed online, so there is minimal impact on the end-user. After the initial synchronization is complete, a final "cutover" is performed, and the user's Outlook will automatically reconfigure itself to connect to their new mailbox in Exchange Online.

Decommissioning Legacy Exchange Servers

The final step after a successful migration from a legacy Exchange version to Exchange 2013, or from on-premises to Exchange Online, is the decommissioning of the old servers. This process must be done carefully to ensure that no dependencies are left behind. This was a final, but important, topic for the 70-342 Exam. The process involves moving all mailboxes, public folders, and arbitration mailboxes off the legacy servers.

You must also reconfigure all mail flow connectors and client access namespaces to no longer point to the old servers. After verifying that no services are still relying on the legacy environment, you can then proceed to gracefully uninstall the Exchange software from the old servers using the official setup program. A clean uninstallation is crucial to ensure that all the configuration objects related to that server are properly removed from Active Directory.

Designing the Mailbox Server Role for High Availability

While the 70-342 Exam covered many specialized topics, it was fundamentally grounded in a deep understanding of the core Exchange Server 2013 architecture. A key part of this was the ability to design the Mailbox server role for maximum availability and performance. In Exchange 2013, the Mailbox server role was the workhorse of the environment. It hosted the mailbox databases, processed all client requests, and performed all content rendering. Therefore, its design was of paramount importance.

The primary consideration for mailbox server design was the Database Availability Group (DAG). The design process involved determining the number of Mailbox servers needed to support the user load, the number of database copies required to meet the service level agreements (SLAs) for availability and data protection, and the physical placement of those servers across different racks, server rooms, or datacenters. A key concept was the idea of building with "commodity" hardware, using a larger number of less expensive servers rather than a small number of monolithic, expensive ones.

Capacity Planning and Sizing for Mailbox Servers

Properly sizing the Mailbox servers was a critical design skill tested by the 70-342 Exam. This was not a simple task; it required a detailed understanding of the user profiles within the organization. A user profile defines the expected messaging behavior, such as the number of messages sent and received per day and the average message size. This information is used to calculate the expected transaction log generation rate and the required database I/O per second (IOPS).

Microsoft provided a detailed role requirements calculator spreadsheet to assist with this process. An administrator needed to input their user counts, user profiles, and high availability requirements into this tool. The calculator would then provide detailed recommendations for the CPU, memory, and storage configuration for the Mailbox servers. Understanding the inputs and interpreting the outputs of this calculator was a key competency for anyone designing an Exchange 2013 environment and a likely topic for the 70-342 Exam.

Designing the Client Access Server (CAS) Role

In Exchange Server 2013, the architecture was simplified into two main roles: the Mailbox server and the Client Access server (CAS). The CAS role was a thin, stateless server responsible for handling all incoming client connections. This was a major change from previous versions and a key architectural concept for the 70-342 Exam. The CAS would authenticate the user and then proxy the connection to the appropriate Mailbox server where the user's active database copy was mounted.

This stateless proxy architecture meant that the CAS servers did not require complex session affinity at the load balancer level. It also meant that the CAS and Mailbox roles could be scaled out independently. A key design principle was to have a CAS in every Active Directory site that also contained a Mailbox server. This ensured that client traffic was proxied locally over the fast LAN rather than across a potentially slow WAN link.

Planning for Load Balancing of CAS

Because all client traffic flowed through the Client Access servers, designing a highly available and scalable CAS infrastructure was a critical task for the 70-342 Exam. This required the use of a load balancer to distribute the client connections across an array of two or more CAS servers. The load balancer could be a hardware device or a software solution, such as Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB).

A key decision in the design process was the choice of load balancing method. Because the CAS was stateless, simple Layer 4 load balancing was sufficient. This method distributes traffic based on the IP address and port, without needing to inspect the application-level traffic. This was much simpler and more efficient than the complex Layer 7 load balancing with session affinity that was required for previous versions of Exchange. You had to create DNS records for your client namespaces that pointed to the virtual IP address (VIP) of the load balancer.

Advanced Transport Architecture Design

The 70-342 Exam required a deep understanding of the mail transport architecture in Exchange 2013. The transport pipeline was a collection of services and components that were responsible for routing all email into, out of, and within the organization. In Exchange 2013, the main transport services ran on the Mailbox server role. This included the Front End Transport service, which acted as a stateless proxy for all incoming SMTP traffic, and the Transport service itself, which performed message categorization, content inspection, and routing.

An advanced design concept was the optional Edge Transport server role. The Edge Transport server is designed to be placed in the organization's perimeter network (or DMZ). It acts as a secure SMTP gateway, providing a first line of defense by handling all internet mail flow and performing anti-spam and anti-malware filtering before the messages ever reach the internal Exchange servers. This adds an extra layer of security and reduces the attack surface of the internal network.

Managing Connectors and Address Spaces

Connectors are the fundamental objects used to control mail flow in Exchange. A thorough knowledge of how to create and manage Send Connectors and Receive Connectors was essential for the 70-342 Exam. Receive Connectors control how the Exchange servers accept incoming SMTP connections. You would create different Receive Connectors for different purposes, such as one for anonymous inbound mail from the internet and another for authenticated connections from internal applications that need to relay mail.

Send Connectors control how Exchange sends outbound mail. You would create Send Connectors to route mail to the internet, either directly using DNS MX records or by forwarding it to a smart host, such as a third-party email hygiene service. You could also create Send Connectors to route mail to specific partner organizations. Each Send Connector is configured with an address space (e.g., * for all domains, or partner.com for a specific domain) that determines which messages it will handle.

Designing and Implementing Transport Resiliency

Just like the mailbox role, the transport services in Exchange 2013 were also designed for high availability. This concept, known as transport high availability, was a key topic for the 70-342 Exam. The primary feature for this was called Safety Net. When a message is successfully delivered to a user's mailbox database, the transport service on the Mailbox server does not immediately delete its copy of the message. Instead, it keeps a shadow copy in a special queue for a configurable period.

If a database failover occurs and the new active copy of the database is slightly out of date, the transport service can detect the missing messages and automatically redeliver them from the Safety Net queue. This helps to prevent lost messages during a server or database failure. For site resiliency, a feature called Shadow Redundancy ensured that a copy of any message in transit was always held on another server, providing protection against the loss of a single transport server.

Troubleshooting Complex Mail Flow Issues

Given the complexity of the transport pipeline, troubleshooting mail flow problems was a critical, advanced skill for the 70-342 Exam. Common issues included messages being delayed or stuck in queues, non-delivery reports (NDRs) being generated, or messages being routed incorrectly. The primary tool for diagnosing these issues was the message tracking log. These detailed logs record every event that occurs as a message passes through the transport system.

An administrator needed to be proficient in using the Get-MessageTrackingLog cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell to search and filter these logs to trace the path of a specific message. Another key tool was the Queue Viewer, which allows you to see the messages that are currently in the various transport queues on a server. This could help you identify a bottleneck, such as a large number of messages waiting to be delivered to a specific external domain.

Configuring and Managing Federation Trusts

Federation is a key technology in Exchange Server 2013 that enables organizations to share certain types of information with each other in a secure and automated way. A deep understanding of how to configure and manage federation was a specific objective of the 70-342 Exam. The primary use case for federation is to share free/busy calendar information between two separate Exchange organizations. This allows users in one company to see the detailed availability of users in a trusted partner company when scheduling meetings.

The process of setting up federation involves creating a federation trust between your on-premises Exchange organization and the Microsoft Federation Gateway, a free cloud-based service. You then create organization relationships with other federated companies. This relationship defines the level of information that will be shared, such as whether to share just basic free/busy information or full calendar details. This technology is also a foundational component of an Exchange hybrid deployment.

Designing Solutions for Information Sharing

Beyond the basic calendar sharing, the 70-342 Exam would expect you to understand the broader applications of federation and other information sharing tools. The policies that govern how information is shared are a key part of the design. You can create sharing policies and assign them to users. These policies define the level of calendar detail that a user is allowed to share with external federated partners. This provides granular control, allowing you to have different sharing levels for different groups of users.

For sharing information with organizations that are not running Exchange or are not federated, Exchange 2013 also supported calendar publishing. This feature allows a user to publish their calendar to a public URL in iCalendar format. They can then share this URL with external contacts, who can view their calendar in a web browser or subscribe to it in their own calendar application. Understanding the differences and use cases for both federated sharing and calendar publishing was an important design skill.

Integrating with Custom and Third-Party Applications

A modern messaging platform must be able to integrate with other business applications. The 70-342 Exam touched upon the methods available for this type of integration in Exchange 2013. The primary API for programmatic access to mailbox data was Exchange Web Services (EWS). EWS is a robust, SOAP-based web service that allows applications to perform a wide range of actions, such as reading and sending emails, creating calendar appointments, and managing contacts.

Many third-party applications, such as CRM systems, mobile device management solutions, and archiving platforms, use EWS to integrate with Exchange. As an advanced administrator, you needed to understand how to manage and troubleshoot this access. This included configuring impersonation, which allows a service account to access the mailboxes of other users, and throttling policies, which can be used to control how many resources a specific application is allowed to consume to prevent it from impacting the performance of the overall Exchange environment.

Final Preparation Strategy for the 70-342 Exam

As you enter the final phase of your preparation for the 70-342 Exam, your focus should shift from learning new material to consolidating and reviewing what you have already studied. The official exam guide, which detailed the skills measured, should be your primary tool. Systematically go through each objective and honestly assess your level of confidence. This will allow you to pinpoint your weaker areas and focus your final study efforts where they will have the most impact.

There is no substitute for hands-on experience, especially for an advanced exam like this one. If you have access to a lab environment, practice the complex, multi-step tasks. Configure a multi-site DAG and perform a datacenter switchover. Set up a basic hybrid deployment using the HCW. Create and test a DLP policy. The more you have practiced these advanced configurations, the more prepared you will be to answer the challenging scenario-based questions on the 70-342 Exam.

Analyzing the Exam Objectives and Question Styles

The 70-342 Exam was a multiple-choice exam that consisted of a mix of question types, including case studies, drag-and-drop, and standard multiple-choice questions. You had to be prepared for questions that were not just simple recall of facts, but required you to analyze a business or technical scenario and choose the best design or solution. These questions often had multiple plausible answers, and you had to select the one that best met all the stated requirements.

A case study question would present you with a detailed description of a fictional company's existing environment, business needs, and technical constraints. You would then have to answer a series of questions based on this case study. This format was designed to test your ability to think like a solution architect, applying your technical knowledge to solve complex, real-world problems. Practice exams were a valuable resource for getting comfortable with this question style.

Key Concepts for Last-Minute Review

In the last few days before taking the 70-342 Exam, a quick review of the most critical and complex topics is highly recommended. Go over the components of a site-resilient DAG design, including quorum, witness server placement, and DAC mode. Refresh your memory on the components of a Unified Messaging deployment, such as dial plans and IP gateways. Be able to clearly articulate the difference between an In-Place Hold and a Litigation Hold.

Review the flow of client connections through a load-balanced CAS array. Remind yourself of the purpose of the key components of a hybrid deployment, such as the federation trust and the mail flow connectors created by the HCW. Finally, be able to describe the roles of the different transport services and the purpose of Safety Net and Shadow Redundancy. A quick review of these advanced topics will ensure they are fresh in your mind.

Managing Time and Strategy on Exam Day

On the day of the 70-342 Exam, it is crucial to manage your time effectively. For case study questions, take the time to read the scenario carefully upfront, as the information will be relevant for multiple questions. For other questions, if you are not sure of the answer immediately, try to eliminate the options you know are incorrect. This can significantly improve your chances if you need to make an educated guess.

Do not get stuck on a single difficult question for too long. The exam interface allowed you to mark questions for review. It is often a good strategy to answer all the questions you are confident about first, and then use your remaining time to go back and tackle the more challenging ones. A calm, methodical approach, combined with the deep technical knowledge you have gained through your studies, was the key to passing the 70-342 Exam.

Conclusion

While the 70-342 Exam and Exchange Server 2013 are now part of IT history, the concepts and principles they taught remain highly relevant. The focus on high availability, site resiliency, security, and compliance are still the core pillars of any modern messaging system. The architecture of Exchange has continued to evolve, with the roles being consolidated in later on-premises versions and with the industry's significant shift toward the cloud with Exchange Online.

Many of the features that were considered advanced in Exchange 2013, such as DLP and advanced threat protection, are now standard components of the cloud service. The skills learned while preparing for the 70-342 Exam provided a strong foundation for administrators to adapt to these new technologies. The journey from on-premises expert to cloud and hybrid messaging professional was a natural evolution for anyone who mastered the advanced solutions of Exchange Server 2013.

Go to testing centre with ease on our mind when you use Microsoft MCSE 70-342 vce exam dumps, practice test questions and answers. Microsoft 70-342 Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 certification practice test questions and answers, study guide, exam dumps and video training course in vce format to help you study with ease. Prepare with confidence and study using Microsoft MCSE 70-342 exam dumps & practice test questions and answers vce from ExamCollection.