Self study path

HashSlinging

Guys, after a mad couple of years trying to raise kids, buying and moving house(s) and generally being all over the place career wise, im looking to settle into the very beginning of getting Fully IT certified (MCSE, CCIE etc). I dont have the time or money to dedicate to doing an evening course, what with a commute + pickup from school/creche etc etc but I'm going to setup a home study area and can find a couple of hours after 9 in the evening to study.

I'm currently working as a snr systems admin in the finance industry and have about 10 years exp in the field but nothing on paper to back up my experience. I've been thinking about a move and it seems a lot of jobs are looking for certs with exp, which leaves me in a difficult situation at interview stage, its not a show stopper and I've had offers but the certs will get me a better paid job if that makes sense, also it does cast some doubt over my abilities and to be honest I dont want to give anyone an excuse not to pay me my full worth..

Which cert path is the best, I have been toying with the idea of starting at the A+ level and working from there, I'm fairly sure I can get the A+ over and done with fairly quick, can someone recommend a book to buy or a site where I get some practise questions, I've seen a couple of sites but they are very heavy with advertising etc, is there any out there that are none commercial etc

Static M.e.

If you are working as a snr systems admin that would/should decide which tracks to go down.

First off what systems do you use?

Linux\Windows\Netware etc

What versions?
What Applications?
How familar are you with Cisco equipment?

If you have 10 years exp then I wouldn't bother with any of the Comptia exams unless as Cv fillers.

Post what exp you have and where are I can tell you what I would do in your situation if that helps. Would you consider doing a Masters and trying to get in Management role?

by the way the CCIE is a tough cookie

_CreeD_

www.techexams.net is the absolute best certification site I've seen.

I wouldn't be pushed on the A+ with your level of experience. It's a great course but it is entry level, and as much as you need paper these days I wouldn't want to work for a company that had so little a clue as to want the A+ from someone with 10 years exp. especially for an admin. position. If you're 100% comfortable with Network topologies/cabling etc. you could skip the Network+ but if not give it a go. It's not too hard and provides a great foundation for further studies without limiting your vendor choices. Do you (or want to) work more on the Server admin. side or the Backbone? The MCSE is a very good course if you take the time to really learn the material, it just has a bad name due to the amount of folks that rush/braindump it, still it's probably the easiest to achieve with a general IT background as we're all pretty much Microsoft-Centric these days even without formal training.
The CCIE is in a whole different universe on both content and difficulty. There is no comparison. Rushing the CCIE, even with plenty of experience behind you to back it up averages about a year. The MCSE can be done much more quickly. While the CCIE is the only higher level Cisco cert that does not have pre-requisites (all the Professional level exams require the CCNA first) trying it without having worked up the CCNA-CC?P (depending on which Professional track you do: CCNP,CCSP etc.) beforehand is extremely undavisable. I've seen 2 guys now that have every Cisco Professional cert. and over a decade in networking fail the CCIE labs in the last few months. It is the ultimate IT cert., both for knowledge levels in it's field and prestige/earning power but there are only just over 14000 active CCIEs in the world for good reason. I've just started on the CCIE security myself and it's pretty daunting, a 35 book recommended reading list not to mention estimates of 350+ hands on lab hours minimum before attempting the Lab.
So, after all that the point is if you want to go for the CCIE great, just don't think of it in the same way as the MCSE .

As for home study that's all I use. There are so many resources available these days that there's not much point in paying thousands of euros just to have someone read from a book. You can get professional advice from many forums like this one or those on Techexams for the topics you need help with. For the MCSE get a PC with a decent amount of Ram, Eval copies of Server 2003 and VMWARE and you can setup an excellent test network that perfectly mimics real world applications.
The Cisco side isn't as easy for hands on, you can pick up some decent Switches and Routers on ebay relatively cheaply and this is the ideal but for the CCNA and CCNP there are also software sims that will get you through. There's also a router emulator called Dynamips. It's a full emulator that lets you run real Cisco images as opposed to a software simulator so you deal with the real thing, it's free but you have to source the images yourself which is not that hard as you can download them from production systems if need be (...and your bosses don't mind, Cisco turn a blind eye so long as you don't distribute them). Dynamips is fast becoming a favourite for CCNP/CCIE level candidates especially, and those guys need something accurate so it's a good choice.
For the security side it's a bit harder as there are no software sims (beyond some flash presentation things). You can do the Router security on Dynamips and again 2nd hand switches (they don't have to be top of the line, even cheap old 2924's with recent images will work for Switch security labs) are cheap. There's a great PIX emulator (again like Dynamips it runs real images) called PEMU that was just ported to Windows, I set one up at the weekend and it works great.

Probably more info. than you need but there ya go.

For books think about Safari Bookshelf Online, if you can get used to online reading/study then it'll save you a lot of cash.

HashSlinging

hi thanks for the reply.

We're running a windows active directory enviroment (2003 server), and a couple of lotus notes domino servers for mail. There are a couple of SQL server boxes also. Most of the high end stuff is supported centrally in the Uk.

My Software exp – Server 2003 (build etc) Windows XP (support/build), Windows 2000 (server build, workstation support), Exchange server 2003 migrations from 5.5. Active Directory migration etc, Veritas backup exec, configuration of a CPS cluster, Norton Ghost tools, Norton and Mcafee Anti-virus suites, Lotus notes/domino install.

Comm’s & Hardware - TCP/IP and networking etc, Cisco Switches not a lot, Dell servers (plug and play), Compaq servers, Some network security, Nortel Networks PBX support.

Standard Toaster

_CreeD_ wrote:

As for home study that's all I use. There are so many resources available these days that there's not much point in paying thousands of euros just to have someone read from a book. You can get professional advice from many forums like this one or those on Techexams for the topics you need help with. For the MCSE get a PC with a decent amount of Ram, Eval copies of Server 2003 and VMWARE and you can setup an excellent test network that perfectly mimics real world applications.
The Cisco side isn't as easy for hands on, you can pick up some decent Switches and Routers on ebay relatively cheaply and this is the ideal but for the CCNA and CCNP there are also software sims that will get you through. There's also a router emulator called Dynamips. It's a full emulator that lets you run real Cisco images as opposed to a software simulator so you deal with the real thing, it's free but you have to source the images yourself which is not that hard as you can download them from production systems if need be (...and your bosses don't mind, Cisco turn a blind eye so long as you don't distribute them). Dynamips is fast becoming a favourite for CCNP/CCIE level candidates especially, and those guys need something accurate so it's a good choice.
For the security side it's a bit harder as there are no software sims (beyond some flash presentation things). You can do the Router security on Dynamips and again 2nd hand switches (they don't have to be top of the line, even cheap old 2924's with recent images will work for Switch security labs) are cheap. There's a great PIX emulator (again like Dynamips it runs real images) called PEMU that was just ported to Windows, I set one up at the weekend and it works great.

Probably more info. than you need but there ya go.

For books think about Safari Bookshelf Online, if you can get used to online reading/study then it'll save you a lot of cash.

*Subs to thread*

Some great info there. Never even heard of Dynamips & PEMU.
I'll deffo check them out later today.

VMware is deffo the way to go if your studying at home and don't have multiple boxes to practice on. Setting up an domain controller, Exchange server, an ISA server and a separate XP workstation and you'll learn loads.

A bit more "hands on" that way instead of using simulators. (Mind you'll need a beefy machine)

HashSlinging

thanks for the info creed, is vmware hard to get? and would i need a couple of licences for it. Got a bit mixed up with the cisco stuff i will be taking the ccna route.

Kali

Wow Creed's said it all there anyway... great post.

VMware Server is free for download and use: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

You don't state what environments you've been working in for your ten years, but I'll presume it's Wintel. If so you have to ask yourself, after ten years are you not confident enough in your abilities as a Windows adminstrator to apply for jobs (regardless of MCSE as a pre-req)? I do it all the time (and I've no MCPs)... if your experience and CV looks technically sound, you will get the interview. An MCSE will cost upwards of a thousand euro, and I view it as something that can help non-experienced people get their foot in the door.

And while it's handy to gain certification in something you already are competent in, think about filling up your CV with those areas you are weak in (Storage/Networking/Citrix), the entry-level certification for some of these are (relatively) easy to get and will broaden your skill base CCNA/CCA/NACA etc. all depends on what kit you have access to on a day-to-day basis.

Also ten years is a long time being a sys-admin, at that stage moving to management/solutions design/consultancy could be a better option for career purposes than another purely technical role .. ITIL/Prince2 might be your start down that road. Just an idea

Static M.e.

is vmware hard to get? and would i need a couple of licences for it.

http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html

No VMware is easy to get and you only need 1 licence (Free) what you do need however is loads of Ram.

As you seem to be a MS house, I will show you the MCSE path I would take.

(Be right back, this could take a few minutes)

Static M.e.

MCSA: Security on Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Core exams (two exams required)

Exam 70–290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70–291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Core exams: client operating system (one exam required)

Exam 70–270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Core security (two exams required)

CompTIA Security+ (This is an easy enough exam)

Exam 70-350: Implementing Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 (ISA is very easy to use and I would count this also as an easy exam)


MCSE : Security

Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure

Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network


Once you have that completed the above you will need to upgrade your Certs to 2008 with an MCSE upgrade exam, due out later this year.

You could also look at doing the following if you wanted more abbreviations after your name

MCTS: Windows Vista, Configuration

Exam 70-620: TS: Microsoft Windows Vista Client, Configuring

Also as Kali mentioned the ITIL and Prince2 certs are also very much in demand now, you could get the ITIL foundation easy enough too.

_CreeD_

Another option for the MCSE Security is to do 70-299 instead of the ISA exam, it's Security Implementation on the server itself rather than with ISA (of course if you work with ISA then that's a better choice), besides being a good course it's it pairs perfectly with 70-298 (same topics just from a design point of view instead), they really should be one exam.

Ps. If any of you do get PEMU make sure to get another util. called BES, http://mion.faireal.net/BES/ . PEMU does not know how to idle so it uses 100% cpu time all of the time, BES lets you throttle the PEMU.EXE process down. It's a lifesaver that doesn't effect the actual performance of the virtual PIX. Pretty much everything you need is here, http://www.blindhog.net/, incl. the software itself and a great video tutorial on setting it up.

donaghs

The MCSA is a shorter alternative to the MCSE, 4 exams instead of 7. Three Core exams and one elective. The XP one (70-270) is slightly easier and a good starting point. The 2003 server builds on this (70-290), and then its best to do the hardest core exam, Windows Networking 70-291 after this.

In terms of electives, SQL may suits your needs in work. I did 2 elective exams, Security+ and ISA 2004 (70-350), which allows me to call myself MCSA Security.

HashSlinging

hmm in the short term the MCSA looks good, thanks for all the advise.. I seem to remember there were some audio books for the microsoft exams, anyone know anything about them, would be handy to stick em on my Mp3 player.

Im still thinking about the ITIL/Prince2 exams also think i'll research them also..

mick.fr

_CreeD_ wrote:

Another option for the MCSE Security is to do 70-299 instead of the ISA exam, it's Security Implementation on the server itself rather than with ISA (of course if you work with ISA then that's a better choice)...

Wrong here. To get the MCSE: Security, you need 298 and 299 and ISA Server (Either 2000 or 2004).