Thanks for the update @Stephen Schneiter !!

So, it sounds like you're looking for practice testing for these exams, yes? There would seem to be a wide range of practice testing options out there.

Is there something you're specifically wanting? Because it would seem that all you might need is something like CertMaster Practice or maybe a third party's practice question bank (just avoid all the Certification Trendz stuff - that's all braindumpy material).

Our college has an on-prem PearsonVUE testing center for testing - not just for our computer programs, but for our AMT medical programs as well. Our test center is not available to the public, meaning you can't schedule through the web for our site - you have to contact our librarian who would set you up. Since we put students through testing in waves, it's just easier to run an eight seat center. We've had it in place since 2016.

Private test centers do get a small cut of testing fees. Like 5-10 bucks per candidate, but it's not a defined revenue stream for us. We do it in conjunction with our programs. One downside is that I can't take beta exams at the private center - since beta exams are scheduled online, and we can't schedule our private center online, well, I have to go to a public center for beta testing (I don't do a bunch of it, but when I do...)

I am not a fan of OnVUE. With the horror stories I've heard, I'm just more comfortable going to a test center. My brain seems to engage better when I have to go somewhere. I, myself, don't typically test at our school - as I don't like taking up a seat for a student - so I go elsewhere. I know OnVUE got its wind during the Coronapocalypse - but it's just never been my thing.

I also have a great story:

Turns out, about a week before I was supposed to do the Server+ TTT for 005, @Stephen Schneiter asked me to take the beta. Well, I had to go to a nearby public site for that - for the reasons addressed above. Well, the pandemic hit the day before my testing date and I couldn't get tested. It cost me a bottle of my homemade mead to the test center owner for her to quietly open the test center (despite Pearson 'highly recommending' everyone close down), to get my Beta done. The Test Center Owner and I still laugh about it to this day, which is one reason why I keep coming back - they became good friends of mine.

/r

The one thing about servers is that, if properly maintained, they just keep going and going and going.

I still have some Dell PowerEdge T410s that still hold up our on-prem infrastructure, which we'll retire before too too long, although one might say they've been in operation for too, too long. I've built a HCI out of Dell Minis, to teach the concepts of clustered computing.

After Broadcom's acquisition of VMWare, we might see some changes in their pricing (probably more expensive), but I've never, really been a fan of VMWare - mostly because they charged the same for licensing for academic institutions, which to me, is asinine (or at least they did when I monkeyed with it). Now, for virtualizing, I would just teach QEMU/KVM for Linux platforms, HyperV on Windows, and VirtualBox to teach the concepts. Sure, you lose the advanced enterprise management stuff, but to me, a 0-2 year shouldn't be touching that stuff anyway.

But I'll agree with Tess here, having a couple old bare metals at the ready.

Because, remember this:

There's no such thing as the cloud - it's just someone else's computer. And the cloud is made up of servers.

/r

I take all my CompTIA exams online. The only exams that I take at a testing center are ISC2 exams because they do not do online testing.

Online is so much easier. The nearest testing center is ten miles away and they only test M-Th from 8:00 AM until 1;00 PM. With OnVue, I can schedule 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I've taken exams on weekends, nights, and early mornings. Plus, there's no traffic from my kitchen to my home office.

Mark Anthony Germanos said:

On a similar note, are you recommending your students take the test at a testing site, or remotely with a sanitized environment?

Click to expand...

I recommend neither, I recommend that they figure out what's best for them and their circumstances and preferences.

Any update on the Cloudnetx voucher ??

I haven't experienced personally the online remote testing, but I recommend to our students to write at a test center.

On a similar note, are you recommending your students take the test at a testing site, or remotely with a sanitized environment?

The school I teach at has its own PearsonVue testing center, which definitely is used by the general public. As far as I know they are indeed paid for the effort. No clue how much; that'd be something you'd have to figure out via PV.

That's a wonderful setup, Hemlock.

We have a dedicated lab with 20 rack Dell R620 servers that are used for a specific course geared around Server+.
We do lots of Hyper-V as we have access to Windows Server OS's through our Microsoft subscription to Azure Dev Tools to Teaching. (Free)
But I gotta say, the students love this course because they get to touch real rack equipment. We have 5 racks with 4 servers on each rack.
We use a KVM to access the servers.
But once they are booted, they can use Remote Desktop to login to the server remotely from their classroom workstation.
If they need access to the real server itself, they can walk up to the keyboard and mouse.
The servers are crazy old, but it's the foundation things they learn that is key.

Abu Afza said:

Waiting for the voucher.

Click to expand...

Likewise

Esther S. Stepansky said:

Have faith! Mine just arrived today so they are still coming out to folks.

Click to expand...

Good News to hear

I was going to say: you could always just make Proxmox clusters out of them.

I also always have one really old clunker, that's still complete, laying about so I can show my students "just what exactly IS a server?". Doesn't matter that the R720 is 12-15 years old, the concepts still apply.

I totally agree with Jason - predictive analytics far beyond a question whether to use to - it was used - now what? If you want elaboration check out and Algorithms to Live by and watch the movie Minority Report - its a lot closer to reality than most people realize:

How Cops Are Using Algorithms to Predict Crimes | WIRED​

Have faith! Mine just arrived today so they are still coming out to folks.

Career College/Tech school, traditional college, and a scant amount of consulting/freelance training and a scanter amount of DoD internal training.

Yet, I didnt receive mine

Thank you Stephen I received my Pentest voucher today on VE Day a new Pope and trade set up with the United States and United Kingdom all good things come to those that wait