How to get into Virtualization

Lately i have been interested in virtualization and think it is going to be the future technology for a VERY long time. Now i read some post here that one should have experience before becoming a virtualization professional. My question is, where should a "newbie" start off if he wants to get into virtualization? Should he start with MCITP?

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ChooseLife

Comparing to some other technologies (SAN, SAP), virtualization is very accessible. There are plenty of options to download products and practice with them for free. All you need is desire and free time. All required resources for studying are freely available on the net.

As far as the products go, it's a bit of a holy-war question. VMware, Xen, KVM, and Hyper-V are the main contenders on the server virtualization market. Can't go wrong if you start with VMware and get some familiarity with the other platforms, I suppose.

As far certifications go, I personally am against certifying in a technology shortly after learning it, so no advice there. IMO, you should work with one of the aforementioned platforms for a year or two, then go for the appropriate certification. I tackled VCP after working with VMware ESX for ~3 years - this was a year after I got hired by a company looking for someone "with the right experience".

pumbaa_g

I am also interested in getting into Virtualization but there seems to be no single path for this. After going through the material available my take away is that to understand Citrix or Vmware or for that matter Hyper-V there is some basic knowledge which is required. This knowledge can be subdivided into any one or more technologies
1. Wintel
2. Network
3. Unix/Linux
I am currently going through the MCITP:EA path after that I was hoping to go through the Hyper V Exams but since MS has discontinued these and the technology changes seems to indicate that MS may go for a different path towards these certifications I have put them on the backburner.
I am thinking about going towards Citrix Xenserver after MS and then come back to some Network based Certification like CCNA.
One small input from my end, it is unlikely that Virtualization will not be related in some way to the Cloud and hence that it something you may want to keep in mind.

kemar1014

pumbaa_g wrote: »

I am also interested in getting into Virtualization but there seems to be no single path for this. After going through the material available my take away is that to understand Citrix or Vmware or for that matter Hyper-V there is some basic knowledge which is required. This knowledge can be subdivided into any one or more technologies
1. Wintel
2. Network
3. Unix/Linux
I am currently going through the MCITP:EA path after that I was hoping to go through the Hyper V Exams but since MS has discontinued these and the technology changes seems to indicate that MS may go for a different path towards these certifications I have put them on the backburner.
I am thinking about going towards Citrix Xenserver after MS and then come back to some Network based Certification like CCNA.
One small input from my end, it is unlikely that Virtualization will not be related in some way to the Cloud and hence that it something you may want to keep in mind.

Virtualization is what they use in the clouds. after you do your MCITP:EA like me you can do server vitualization for 2008(70-659) and then with one more exam (70-246) you will be a could admin on hyper-v 3.0

pumbaa_g

I have the same goal Kemar, its just that work/study kind of slows things down. I should complete all these by End of the Year

kemar1014

pumbaa_g wrote: »

I have the same goal Kemar, its just that work/study kind of slows things down. I should complete all these by End of the Year

Since i only need one exam. I am looking out for a free voucher or a beta to do the hyper-v 3.0 exam

pumbaa_g

The voucher for 2 for 1 exam is only valid if you take the exam before the end of this month mate! I was hoping to give 643 and then 780 by this week so that I can atleast get a free shot at Windows 8. Unfortunately tonnes of work from last week has delayed my plans. Still studying for 643 as of now. If you have a shot go ahead and best of luck!

RouteThisWay

I know I am late to this thread by a couple weeks- but I think my answer is still relevant.

Remember, virtualization is really just a delivery platform. You still need to have strong admin skills. You still need to be able to understand routing, switchin, VLAn segmentation, etc. You need to be able to do some OS troubleshooting (Windows and Linux), etc.

Virtualization is not really a "path" like Microsoft, Cisco, Red Hat, etc. You really need to have a set of admin skills that really helps build a foundation and understanding of how systems are run.

I would recommend go with your chosen flavor of IT (networking, sys admin, etc) and work on your flavor of virtualization (Hyper-V, VMWare, Red Hat Virtualization, etc) as a complimentary skill. Then work on leveraging your virtualization experience to start working with it more and more.

lunchbox67

RouteThisWay wrote: »

I know I am late to this thread by a couple weeks- but I think my answer is still relevant.

Remember, virtualization is really just a delivery platform. You still need to have strong admin skills. You still need to be able to understand routing, switchin, VLAn segmentation, etc. You need to be able to do some OS troubleshooting (Windows and Linux), etc.

Virtualization is not really a "path" like Microsoft, Cisco, Red Hat, etc. You really need to have a set of admin skills that really helps build a foundation and understanding of how systems are run.

I would recommend go with your chosen flavor of IT (networking, sys admin, etc) and work on your flavor of virtualization (Hyper-V, VMWare, Red Hat Virtualization, etc) as a complimentary skill. Then work on leveraging your virtualization experience to start working with it more and more.

Great post!!!
Hit the target dead center

dave330i

RouteThisWay wrote: »

I know I am late to this thread by a couple weeks- but I think my answer is still relevant.

Remember, virtualization is really just a delivery platform. You still need to have strong admin skills. You still need to be able to understand routing, switchin, VLAn segmentation, etc. You need to be able to do some OS troubleshooting (Windows and Linux), etc.

Virtualization is not really a "path" like Microsoft, Cisco, Red Hat, etc. You really need to have a set of admin skills that really helps build a foundation and understanding of how systems are run.

I would recommend go with your chosen flavor of IT (networking, sys admin, etc) and work on your flavor of virtualization (Hyper-V, VMWare, Red Hat Virtualization, etc) as a complimentary skill. Then work on leveraging your virtualization experience to start working with it more and more.

What you say is true in a small environment, but not in a large deployment.

ptilsen

Yeah, I think a lot of senior virtualization guys are going to disagree with you, RouteThisWay. In a huge environment your hypervisor becomes a platform of its own, and requires management as such.

In small, medium, even some large environments, I'll agree with you that the virtualization solution is more of a tool, and will probably be treated as such.

For the record, in my own recent search for "senior systems engineer" positions, which is to say high-level generalist sysadmin, I was almost always asked about a handful of fairly specific areas:
Windows platform (AD, DNS, file services, etc.)
VMware (always ESXi, sometimes View or ThinApp, etc.)
Web/SQL (MySQL & Apache and/or MS SQL & IIS)
Linux
Networking
SANs

A few companies were using Citrix, but the hypervisor was almost always ESXi. Some of those specifics changed a bit between interviews, but VMware was always involved.

That being said, I also ran across a lot of positions that were asking for a minimum of VCP and really wanted just a VMware guy. Some basically asked for no skills other than VMware and SANs. So it really goes both ways; you'll see VMware as the focal point or sole responsibility of a high-level position, or as one of many platforms which you're expected to know.