Best way to learn or get hands on

Please advise the best way to learn or get hands-on experience with the following:

1) SAN, NAS - more specifically EMC
2) virtualization - VMWare Vsphere/ESXi, Microsoft
3) backup, disaster recovery -
4) cybersecurity - VPN, firewall, IPSec configuration
5) Exchange server
6) RDBMS - MS SQL, Oracle
7) Wireless - Blackberry server, iPhone, iPad

Cisco PIX/ASA, VOIP
9) Sharepoint
10) QoS
11) WAN protocols - BGP, OSPF
12 load balance - F5
13) clustering

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Comments

chrisone

In any industry to gain or learn experience, is to find an entry level job. However these chances are very slim. So your best bet would be to work for free and get paid with experience. No one will avoid free labor, even if you dont get to touch the keyboard or mouse, just helping out racking stuff or doing grunt work, being apart of the project goes under you experience hat. You start to get a good idea of how companies implement the devices.

Take notes, notes, notes! help out with a smile, keep your suggestions to a minimum, provide support in all aspects. Your help , dedication, and hard work will land you that entry level job since the higher engineers will get so used to having you around, they wont be able to afford to let you go.

alan2308

And until you find work, a home lab helps you learn new topics and stay sharp on things you already know. Learn virturalization now, and you create yourself a platform (in other words your array of usable virtual machines) in which to study things on your list like Exchange, Sharepoint and databases. Learn GNS3 now and you have a platform to learn about Cisco PIX/ASA, QOS, and WAN protocols.

You can still impress with your knowledge of a topic without any documented work experience to back it up.

fredmoogie

i recently went to interview for a tier-2 position at a web hosting/managed service datacenter. i asked if i will be working with those technologies listed above. manager simply say yes to all except exchange/sharepoint.

i never work in at a managed service datacenter before, what are my chances of working with these advanced techs? i thought these were more of a senior level network/sys admin/engineers.

i appreciate your thoughts.

Moki99

I am currently working with Exchange and SharePoint at my first entry level IT support job. However, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to storage, backup, and DRP. I too wish I had the opportunity to work with Vsphere/ESXi, SANS, NAS, and Voip/ASA's.

swild

I actually work with all of those in my job. I'm not quite entry level but that's where I started. This is my first "real" IT job. Look for desktop support positions. Get your A+, net+. You should be able to get there eventually. I'm still at the bottom of the ladder but I study for all of those technologies and when something goes wrong, the tech loves it when he can easily talk me through the fix. That way I learn more and get to network with people that know much more than me and gives me advice about where to go for whatever. Also the company loves that I can fix issues with minimal guidance and they don't have to fly someone out.

NightShade1

fredmoogie wrote: »

Please advise the best way to learn or get hands-on experience with the following:

1) SAN, NAS - more specifically EMC
2) virtualization - VMWare Vsphere/ESXi, Microsoft
3) backup, disaster recovery -
4) cybersecurity - VPN, firewall, IPSec configuration
5) Exchange server
6) RDBMS - MS SQL, Oracle
7) Wireless - Blackberry server, iPhone, iPad
Cisco PIX/ASA, VOIP
9) Sharepoint
10) QoS
11) WAN protocols - BGP, OSPF
12 load balance - F5
13) clustering

The best way to get hands on on many things if if you got luck like me and your company is hired to admin client networks...
i dot many things but i do have a few places in which im the system admin there. So im in charge of everything there server firewall router switches the only thing i dont do is tech support of end user machines, or database programing related stuff.

Anyways
On those places i try to tune it the best way i can... they got firewalls and i think i put everything i can on it trafic shapping, dual internet redundancy, per user policies, every port are blocked, just let the necesary go out, web filter, appl control, vpn site to site, vpn dial up for users and restricted access with policy based for providers, etc etc etc.... thats just inthe firwall, all the firmwares are up to date, everything is up to date, on the servers got Wsus, primary DC backup DC, virtualization on Hyper-v GPos, forefront central administration, had to fix ALL but ALL the errors on the single dc they had, which was a LOT i learn A LOT from that etc etc et, on the swtiches the same thing ACLs, got the time, name and everything on everyport its labeled with the proper descriptions vlans, intervlan routing, Core-Access design(the network is small to have distribution.... and i can continue, wireless and everything, i do investigate and how to do things and i test in there, well i test in a lab and then implement in there, i get to know what things that can go wrong because if something went wrong it already happened there... but since im the sys admin well i can fix it right away if something does tn work properly. They actually dont pay that much for ALL the complex config they got in there but well it works for me as i can practice on those small networks. Then when i have to do it on bigger clients i already know got the practice of those small places...
Im happy, client is happy casue they are getting complex config for free(Well they are paying monthly fee but still is not that much) the good thing is that some of them do buy really good gear even if they are not that big. so i get to practice everything...

I mean for example they are buying APs with the WC they will pay for a basic config but ill put everthing vlan pools contract BW, soo many things.

Dont know what you think but in this method i see everyone happy

i can try this on labs becasue for examle i got all the gear for labs but its not the same that you do it in a lab and then okay i finished, then do it for real on a client and have to have a eye on it, you get to troubleshoot that kind of stuff that can actually help in bigger clients later.

Anyways just my 2 cents ;P