Best way to learn network/ad/infrastructure stuff

ringo747

ringo747

ringo747

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I work mostly with SharePoint and am fairly comfortable with the product itself and the development side, however, as I am attending more customer workshops I find I come into lots of scenarios where a better understanding of networks/domains/hardware would be beneficial. If you had to learn all this stuff how would you go about it?

Some useful topics would be:
Domains - specifically around trusts
Networking - load balancing, ssl offloading, reverse proxies, TMG/UAG, network configuration i.e. red/yellow zones

Is there any resources that would be worth looking at to help my general knowledge on the infrastructure side of things? I'd like to be more confident in continuing these sort of discussions when they arise as opposed to saying "I'll check that out and get back to you".
 
You're talking a lot of technologies of which each one is a massive topic. It depends if you're talking about having a quick glance to know the basic concepts or to actually knowing what it is in depth.

There's tons of online resources and books on the subjects. Wiki is a good starting point for all of them really. If you're after more in depth then Amazon books would be a good starting point. Specific questions I can field.


M.
 
Yes, that is the problem. It's very difficult to know where to start other than reading up on some wiki articles.

I suppose like everything else it develops with experience but a bit of solid background knowledge would be very beneficial.
 
From your list it may be worth looking at dependencies and working in reverse order. So from your list:

Domains - specifically around trusts
Networking - load balancing, ssl offloading, reverse proxies, TMG/UAG, network configuration i.e. red/yellow zones


I would look at learning (in order):

Networking concepts - Perhaps work on a CCNA/Network+ material. This will give you a baseline and give you configuration practice.
Firewall concepts - Perhaps work on Security+ material. Cisco and Checkpoint do Firewall-specific certs, however you'd need to review them to see if it's overkill. This will focus on some of your SSL/Proxy/Load balancing topics. To learn these concepts you need a good founding in network fundamentals, which the CCNA/Network+ material will give you.
Domains - Perhaps work a MCTS - Active Directory material. AD domains heavily rely on DNS, so get a good grounding on this first. To learn these concepts you need to have a good grasp on network fundamentals, which the above will give you in. With the firewall topics learnt you can also gain knowledge in how to spread trusts across VPN's, understand concepts about ports to forward, load balancing, security, diagnosing issues, etc.

I'm not saying you should take the courses/pass the exams etc, but working through the material alone will give you a good foundation in the topics you've specified.

Once you have the material getting practice can be accomplished by simply running a few VM's or buying cheap kit of ebay.

Hope this helps :)

Edit : http://www.tcpipguide.com/ is an awesome resource for network-related topics.
 
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I should also point out that TMG/UAG are specific Microsoft products (Threat Management Gateway / Unified Access Gateway) rather than 'networking' products (essentially they're software firewalls/vpn).

Personally I'd find the one you want to know most about and is beneficial and get a book on it and then move on from there. Nothing beats experience though so try and find something you have a chance that you're going to actually be working with.


M.
 
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