Want to learn about Servers

sizeon

Hi guys i want to get into servers, blade systems and visualization. Are there any certs that teaches this?

hiddenknight821

You should take a look in the CompTIA Server+ forum, but I have to warn you it's probably pretty dead down there.

slinuxuzer

Your going to have to start out building up to this a piece at a time, there are lots of skills a good server admin needs to have.

Hardware experience PC and server.
OS experience PC and server.
A good understanding of networking.
Backup and disaster recovery methods and associated hardware
Applications experience.
Scripting,

These are just a few and we haven't even touched blades, storage, vmware, security yet.

I don't know what your experience and skill level is currently but for the hear and now, maybe you should look over the HP product bulletin, there is some really good info in there, if you really take your time and look through this it can give you a good idea of what components make up servers and blades and how they differ from PC's.

That being said, no cert is the magic bullet to make you a server admin, hands on is where your really going to learn most things. If you have specific questions, you can PM me, or I am sure you'll get an answer posting them.

Essendon

Good advice here already by the previous posters, but I'd like to add. You should get a job as a junior sys admin or something similar. Nothing teaches you more than a job working on real, live, production networks. Sure you cant break stuff, but the experience is invaluable. The Server+ exam is not a bad start but it's very basic.

Read up on the internet about servers, buy a cheap HP G4 server, they go for less than $100 these days. Read, read, read!!

zaxbysauce

Server+ wasn't a bad starting point. It will give you a broad overview of the terminology and hardware used in servers. I have a thread about taking it and the materials I used in the Server+ forum.

Everyone

Follow my budget laboratory series, it'll walk you through a lot of different kinds of server builds using virtualization.

sizeon

I have 5 years of helpdesk experience and have A+ and CCENT certification. I also have an Associates in computer science and know C++, C#, HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and ASP.NET. I know active directory and system admin with fedora and solaris.

slinuxuzer

It sounds like your next step is MCITP:EA or getting alot of hands on experience with servers, whats the server infrastructure look like where you work? If it's minimal and you have no chance to advance you will have to move on, if it's huge your in luck, make friends with the server guys and get them to start showing you some stuff.

Unfortunatley, server admin experience is a catch 22, most people won't let you touch their stuff without experiece, so thats why I suggest the Microsoft cert, that usually eases the transition.

Also, like others suggested, at some point your going to need a lab environment, I just bought a HP ML110 off ebay for around 300 fully loaded with 8GB of memory, I intend to run vmware workstation on it like I have always done and build out new vmware environments inside this.

As for Vmware, trainsignal makes the best training videos for them right now, CBT nuggets makes good MS training videos, if your company owns any netapp equipment then you will likely have access to netapps simulator product, this can help you learn a little bit about storage, I think EMC also makes a simulator product.

Also, since you already know AD, getting really good with powershell may in some instances help you break through the ice, alot of places need this skill and few admins have it.

And don't forget the HP product bulletin, this is a highly concentrated source of information for HP's products.

UnixGuy

For good conceptual level knowledge, I highly recommend CompTIA Server+ . I worked in Server's support for sometime, and I there are many great vendor-based trainings for support staff so if you can get a job support servers/blades/virtual enviroments, you will learn a lot. Even if you don't take the CompTIA Server+ , just read the material, it's good.