MSCE study materials
MSCE study resources

MSCE case studies

MSCE · Put your knowledge to work in context.

The Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) is a legacy Microsoft credential for IT professionals who design, implement, and support Windows-based network infrastructure. It was aimed at systems engineers, network administrators, and consultants who plan and maintain server environments rather than at entry-level help-desk staff. The exam profile here spans the full engineering lifecycle: planning network infrastructure, installing and troubleshooting it, planning and implementing network services, designing directory services architecture, designing and implementing security, deploying servers and clients, and monitoring and optimizing the environment. Expect a mix of multiple-choice and multiple-response items, drag-and-drop sequencing, case studies with background narrative you must read carefully, and simulation-style tasks where you perform configuration steps rather than pick an answer. The MSCE case studies are 5 cases and about 3,151 words.

1

Branch Office Authentication Latency After WAN Upgrade

Contoso has a hub site with two domain controllers (DC1, DC2) running DNS and a branch office of 60 users connected by a 40 Mbps MPLS link with 35 ms round-trip latency. The branch previously hosted a read-only domain controller (RODC) that failed two months ago and was never replaced.

725 words, about 4 min
2

Certificate Services Rollout for 802.1X Wireless

Fabrikam is deploying WPA2-Enterprise wireless with PEAP-MSCHAPv2 for 2,500 domain-joined laptops and 300 non-domain mobile devices. They plan to stand up an internal enterprise certification authority (CA) to issue server certificates to the NPS/RADIUS servers and client certificates to laptops.

687 words, about 3 min
3

File Server Migration and DFS Namespace Cutover

Northwind has a single file server (FS01) hosting 4 TB of departmental shares on a RAID-5 volume that is 92% full. They are adding FS02 with 8 TB of storage.

609 words, about 3 min
4

Server Deployment Automation with Constrained Bandwidth

Tailspin has 12 new physical servers to deploy in a data center, plus 200 branch-office workstations that need a standard image. The data center has a 1 Gbps LAN; branches are connected by 10 Mbps links.

574 words, about 3 min
5

Monitoring a Multi-Site Environment After a Performance Complaint

Adventure Works has a main data center and two regional offices. Users in Region B report that a line-of-business web application is slow every morning between 08:00 and 10:00.

556 words, about 3 min