Resources for Windows Administration
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I was recently promoted to Operations Manager, and one of my responsibilities is maintaining the IT infrastructure, including a Windows server, active directory for authentication, printers, etc.
What are some good resources for the Windows Server stuff? As a manager, I have a lot of "free time" where it looks like I'm not doing anything, and I can use that time to fix problems, instead of writing a ticket with our IT company for $75 an hour. Getting those costs down will earn me a bonus!
Books (preferably), websites, how-tos. Something with a comprehensive overview, and then maybe detailed how-tos would be great. Does such a thing exist?
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Ms publishes it's own books. They used to be a rather decent starting point. I learned a lot from the certification series. The resource kit books where OK as well but the last time I read one it was for XP.
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Just the other day I was looking at the Microsoft Certifications page, due to Yami's posts about getting her QA certicate.
Take a look at the topics you'd think would help you most. Even if you don't want to take the test, each course links to a WHOLE LOT of great, free, reference material. For example, a few clicks brought me to this page:
Training
Master core concepts at your speed and on your schedule. Whether you've got 15 minutes or an hour, you can develop practical skills through interactive modules and paths. You can also register to learn from an instructor. Learn and grow your way.
Here's the index page:
Master core concepts at your speed and on your schedule. Whether you've got 15 minutes or an hour, you can develop practical skills through interactive modules and paths. You can also register to learn from an instructor. Learn and grow your way.
The top-most course is one named Understanding Active Directory.
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Very cool, thanks.
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The most important thing I have ever found for learning such things is a lab environment. I know it sounds like a luxury, but having some place to try things without worry of borking your main network is a huge benefit. Plus, with snapshots you can reset everything back to baseline in just a couple of minutes (or less) instead of having to rebuild things when you really fuck them up.
Even a cheap used Dell machine from eBay with 16-24GB of RAM would allow you a server or two and a couple of desktops, etc., to play with.
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As a manager, I have a lot of "free time" where it looks like I'm not doing anything, and I can use that time to fix problems, instead of writing a ticket with our IT company for $75 an hour.
Is that internal or external IT?
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Even a cheap used Dell machine from eBay with 16-24GB of RAM would allow you a server or two and a couple of desktops, etc., to play with.
Yes, that's on the agenda. Especially since I want to set up some Linux development servers for some projects.
Is that internal or external IT?
External.
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The Resource Kits and Training Kits used to be the gold standard, and if you're really new then you really should have access to that information. However, I've heard criticisms since 2012 that they're not as good as they used to be. Still, you should know -- or be able to know -- everything that they teach.
Truthfully, what you'll need to get good with is PowerShell. It works somewhat like Perl or bash but with objects instead of streams, and it gives you a full .Net environment so it's very powerful since you can leverage all the classes built in to the .Net Framework. Additionally, it's not that difficult to translate most C# code if you really need to.
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Have you looked at pluralsight or safaribooksonline? Both cost a few hundred bucks but you get tons of videos and (in Safari's case) access to loads of downloadable books.
Might be able to get the company to splurge for it? We offer our devs and IT ops guys the choice of one or the other each year.
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Have you looked at pluralsight or safaribooksonline? Both cost a few hundred bucks but you get tons of videos and (in Safari's case) access to loads of downloadable books.
+1 for pluralsight
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Yes, that's on the agenda. Especially since I want to set up some Linux development servers for some projects.
I was just checking eBay, and there is a screaming deal on R710's right now if you need a sandbox environment to work with:
12 cores, 144GB of RAM, 6x2TB disks which would get you 6TB of RAID10 to work with. All for $999. That would make for a mighty big sandbox to work from.
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My team bills to the customer at 80 bucks an hour.
There's another team within WTFCorp that gets billed at 36 an hour for custom development work. And they can't figure out why they don't make a profit.
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We bill at twice that, plus change. I would be eeking by at $75-80/hour.
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We bill at twice that, plus change. I would be eeking by at $75-80/hour.
That's just about my salary (assuming 52w * 40h). Oh yeah. Location, Location, Location.
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I need this for playing ftl.
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"Resources for Windows Administration"
