Help needed with career path

arvin2212

Hey guys, i am from Malaysia. I am 22 years old at the moment, and posses a Diploma in IT.

After graduation (September 2010), i was working with HP (Hewlett Packard) Malaysia, under a job agency as a contingent worker. I was assigned to a WINTEL team, as a windows server administrator, solving tickets, that are within the Level 1 job scope. Nothing too technical i would say.

Just last month, i quit my job at HP, and moved on to a different company, E2 power which is a subsidiary of OCBC Bank, working in their datacenter as a datacenter operator. This job doesn't require me to have much skills in IT, as it requires me to key in a few commands to the AS400 machine to get its output on various times of the day, and to record down outputs from a few other windows machines that are running the bank's operation.

The reason why i am there, is because of the salary offered. I need the money, to pay for my certifications which i wish to take up early next year.

Now, i have no idea where to start. I know that IT is my passion and i want to make it big. I want to be somewhere respectable in the future. I want to work with Microsoft Operating Systems, so my certification lies within the MCITP path. Would it be feasible if i were to start with MCITP : Enterprise Administrator?

For my first certification, i plan to join a bootcamp, perhaps somewhere in India (Koenig Solutions) and learn there. I am aware that i could save the money and self study, but since i have 0 experience, i would rather have an instructor to be there to guide me along. Meanwhile, i'll do some reading myself to prepare for the bootcamp.

Where do i go from there? I have heard about networks (CISCO) or Virtulization / Cloud computing (Citrix / VMWARE). I couldn't find alot of Citrix courses offered here in Malaysia as compared to Vmware.

Would it be advice-able if i were to take my MCITP :EA and then proceed with Vmware certification?

What can i expect with this career choice?

Your replies would be much appreciated

pzero

Hi Arvin,

Just so you know the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator is a series of 5 exams (70-640, 70-642, 70-643, 70-647 and 70-680).

As you have indicated that you have 0 experience, Bootcamp may not be the best method to study. They are designed for people who are already experienced in the product and as such you may find it to be a major information overload. Not saying its not possible, it will just be full on with a steep learning curve. MS have instructor based learning which sounds like it would suit better (ie they will take 3-5 days explaining a topic)

MS Provide free 180 day trials of their products which you can use to study and "lab" away at with a study guide like a MS Press book etc. Certainly a much "cheaper" way of going about it.

Certainly MCTIP then VCP is good combination for systems admin roles and virtualisation isnt going away any time soon.

Good luck!

arvin2212

Hi pzero,

Thank you so much for your reply

About the bootcamp, the one offered, takes about 35 days to complete, which is why i am choosing to do it abroad (India) as compared to Malaysia, which takes about 2 - 3 days at maximum. Do you think they'd be able to cover all the topics in detail within 35 days that i am there? Would a beginner benefit?

I am glad that you're positive about the MCITP and VCP as i think this is the path i'll most certainly follow as i am interested in the concepts of cloud computing

nhan.ng

Have you touch any VMWARE products before, or specifically ESXi? I'm asking this because Vmware ESXi is a whole new different animal. If you only have 30+ days to do two, then you'll have a lot on your plate

arvin2212

nhan.ng wrote: »

Have you touch any VMWARE products before, or specifically ESXi? I'm asking this because Vmware ESXi is a whole new different animal. If you only have 30+ days to do two, then you'll have a lot on your plate

I've toyed with vmware workstation to run a few OS, just for my own experiments, nothing too major. ESXi however, is something i've never tried.

Oh btw, MCITP takes about 35 days.

For Vmware, its a different course, where i could take it once i am done with MCITP or sometime (a few weeks/months) after i am done with MCITP, depending on the amount of money i could secure

There are 2 vmware certifications that are offered, VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4.1] (11 days) and VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 4 - Datacenter Administration (16 days). What is your view on this?

nhan.ng

in order for you to sit in for a VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 4 - Datacenter Administration, you'll need to be VCP4 certified.

Pass an exam + sit in an authorized VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4.1] = VCP4. You can do other classes, too but this one is more popular.

I say go ahead and get your MCITP, depends on time/money, you can either take the VCP4 exams or wait until version 5 come out and take that. Get an old server or 2, load ESXi on there and practice, practice

arvin2212

nhan.ng wrote: »

in order for you to sit in for a VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 4 - Datacenter Administration, you'll need to be VCP4 certified.

Pass an exam + sit in an authorized VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4.1] = VCP4. You can do other classes, too but this one is more popular.

I say go ahead and get your MCITP, depends on time/money, you can either take the VCP4 exams or wait until version 5 come out and take that. Get an old server or 2, load ESXi on there and practice, practice

Thank you nhan.ng

I'll go ahead with my MCITP first and then proceed with Vmware, hopefully version 5 would be out by then.

I am planning to purchase a server, for my MCITP training. (I plan to read up on the training kit /material and play around with the system before attending the bootcamp so i'd be able to grasp the lessons easily),

This is the system that i am planning to purchase:

Dell PowerEdge T110 Server
Intel Xeon X3430 Xeon CPU, 2.4GHz, 8M Cache
2GB Memory 2x1GB,1333MHz Single Ranked UDIMMs
1 x 250GB 7.2K RPM SATA II 3.5" Hard Drive - Non Hotplug

What do you think?

I am planning to install Windows 2008 for now and experiment with Active Directory and whatever that is involved in MCITP. Perhaps i'll be using it for VMware as well in the future. Good investment?

cyberguypr

RAM is key for virtualization. I would bump the 2GB to the max I could afford.

nhan.ng

I'd put at least 16gig on it Ram is pretty cheap these days get more hard drives for storage + raid card, unless u gonna get a separate storage server.

arvin2212

Hmmm..

The highest amount of RAM offered for this system by DELL is

8GB Memory (4x2GB), 1333MHz, Single Rank UDIMMs for 1 Processor

which is about 330 USD, about 75% the total cost of the system. Should i still proceed to get it?

nhan.ng

stick with the 2gig configuration and buy the memory separately to save money.

This page says it will support up to 16gb
PowerEdge 11G T110 Tower Server Details | Dell

tbgree00

I have that server and it's awesome. I only have 4GB of ram and wish I could pull the trigger and get more. I have a DC, a file share, and a sharepoint site running and it's killing me.

If you get really into it you can look into getting a technet subscription. I loved mine when I was studying the MCSE.

arvin2212

Guys, Is UDIMM the only type of RAM applicable to the system?

I tried searching for it from local online stores and i couldn't find any except for a 1GB UDIMM RAM which is useless since i want more RAM.

Any other alternatives to the UDIMM RAM?

powerfool

MCITP Enterprise Administrator is really a requirement for your path.

CCNA - It used to be that senior guys tacked on a CCNA to their MCSE and they would get a $10K USD pay bump (substantial), but that isn't the case any longer. However, I still think that the knowledge attained in the course of the CCNA is valuable to any systems administrator. You get a feel for the networking side, you understand what the networking folks must do, and you can stumble through things if required; in addition, you may like it and seek more opportunities for experience.

VCP - This is becoming very hot, and I honestly don't see it going away. So many companies have already gone this direction. Again, you can gain a cursory level of knowledge to support your efforts, or you can run with it and be very active in this area.

Other MS Products - Exchange Server, SQL Server, SCOM, SCCM... there are other Microsoft products that are heavily utilized and have their own MCTS and MCITP tracks.

Advanced MS Certs - Once you have at least five years of good experience under your belt, you could consider going after an MCM certification. When these first came out, I was invited to participate and I thought it would be great, until I saw the price tag. Microsoft has began to mold this level into something akin to the Cisco CCIE. There is currently no third-party training, but I would imagine that this won't be long away, at least for the MCM Exchange and MCM SQL Server that no longer require the three weeks training program in Redmond.

Management Certs - PMP, ITIL, CoBIT... these will be good for supporting a senior level individual that is getting more involved in projects and leadership.