Learning Server 2012R2 as if it were a company

If anyone remembers SBS 2003 and 2008, there were a set of books published by Harry Brelsford from SMB Nation that took you through setting up the server, adding users, configuring access, exchange accounts, etc as if you were configuring the server for a company. Each chapter took you through a logical sequence and practice in the same users as the company grew.

In Server 20012 and R2, there are a lot of books and labs available to go over learning individual topics. Unfortunately, they all seem to be disjointed because they don't have a common theme as the books for SBS 2008/2008 had. Has anyone ever come across a book or set of labs that connected everything together as I've mentioned above?

If this were available, it would have you install and configure the server, then move on to create the OUs and users, GPO, Branch servers etc as "the company" grew. I have found in the past that has been a very good way of learning because it takes you from "chapter 1 page 1" through to the full growth of the company and you gained experience along with it.

If anyone remembers the books that I'm mentioning or has come across a book like that, it would be appreciated if you could list the information. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that would benefit from that. Especially as you progress in your studies.

Thanks.

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cycleking

I'd be interested to know what the OP has asked as well. Anybody?

MHTECH

this does sound very interesting, can't say I have come across anything like this so far.

TheFORCE

cycleking wrote: »

I'd be interested to know what the OP has asked as well. Anybody?

The OP is asking if there are any books out there that teaches you Server 2012R2 from the beginner level to intermediate to expert by progressively introducing you to new topics as they relate to the growth of a company. As a company grows so does its technology in terms of implementation. If you have a company of 100 users, with 1 computer each and 2 domain controllers, 1 Domain, printer servers, 10 OU's and 200 email addresses. The OP wants to do know, if the company was to merge with another company or acquire another company or if all of a sudden they hired another 100 employees, what would the IT department or the IT Server administrator would have to do to accommodate the increase in user base. Create new OU's, create new user accounts, home drivers, how to add the new computers in the domain, how to add new domain controllers.. etc etc.

This reminds me of the Contoso company, a lot of Microsoft books take you through the setup of Contoso, a fictional company used by Microsoft to walk you through topics that you need to learn by creating a fictional company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contoso

From wiki

Contoso.com is used as an example domain in Microsoft Exams 70-511, 70-515, 70-640, 70-680 and 70-685
Contoso.net is used as an example domain in the account configuration wizard from Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010 and Microsoft Outlook 2013, while Contoso.com is used as an example in the help file.

JoJoCal19

That type of writing style for a tech book sounds exactly like what I'd like. I learn best from a very practical standpoint. Case studies are the best IMO.

Louie1277

Thank god someone is like me that we have to follow steps and build the company from scratch. I would be very interested in this since I tried to pass the 70-410 3 times... ugh...

iBrokeIT

TheFORCE wrote: »

This reminds me of the Contoso company...

Haha oh wow thanks for the flashback! It was also heavily used in the 2003 Microsoft Press books too...

illmortalized

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

That type of writing style for a tech book sounds exactly like what I'd like. I learn best from a very practical standpoint. Case studies are the best IMO.

Agreed.

biggene

So which one of you guys is writing this book and when?

ThomasITguy

I would also like to know this as well.... I think its a good way to learn and actually grasp the material

JerryL

You'd think that this type of book would be a no-brainer. Obviously if I could write the book I'd be teaching the topic instead of learning it.

Sooooo many questions, sooooo many answers...... Aaarrrggghhhh! Will I ever get it the Microsoft way?