How to learn Exchange?

ajf

ajf

ajf

Soldato
Joined
30 Oct 2006
Posts
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Location
Worcestershire, UK
Currently looking for a job after being made redundant.
One area I am weak on is Exchange support/admin. It only really amounts to creating and deleting mailboxes and stumbling through an install at home on a test box.

Any suggestions for getting some good knowledge? As above I have a test box with it on but really need something to follow to gain the knowledge.

Thanks
Andrew
 
I concur. The best way to learn IMO is to set it up and configure it yourself.

Perhaps even try to get a bit creative with the config if your virtual machine resources allow (configuring DAGs and failover routes).
 
Even then most of what you need to know will be learnt when obscure things go wrong.

Im still getting to grips with this exchange 2010 shenanigans after jumping from years on 2003 i never really touched 2007 ! Big difference so just get playing.
 
There's no substitute for doing a formal training course. Even though you can learn it all by self study on a virtual lab you'll get both the knowledge and a nice piece of paper at the end to show prospective employers. Which in the current climate is very handy. Given the choice of someone who says they can do something and someone who has a certificate proving they can. As an employer I know which one I'd offer the job to.
 
Exchange is the collaborative application product developed by Microsoft Technologies. If you wish to learn ms exchange, then there is no good source than microsoft itself.
 
Skidilliplop said:
There's no substitute for doing a formal training course. Even though you can learn it all by self study on a virtual lab you'll get both the knowledge and a nice piece of paper at the end to show prospective employers. Which in the current climate is very handy. Given the choice of someone who says they can do something and someone who has a certificate proving they can. As an employer I know which one I'd offer the job to.
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I ALWAYS employ the one with experience, regardless of paper qualifications. Formal courses are (in 9 out of 10 scenarios) next to useless.
 
had to learn exchange on the fly so to say after a day if you haven't masterd it then you need to revieve your job aims. my second day on the job is when the i love you virus struck aqnd the top brass happily forwarded it to each other. all you had to do was stop the mail server delete all mails and remove the virus 30000 emails entries later hey presto normal service resumes with plenty of egg on the face of the management. always thought it was strange that the md sent the head of resourcess an i love you email lol
 
cr@pbag said:
had to learn exchange on the fly so to say after a day if you haven't masterd it then you need to revieve your job aims. my second day on the job is when the i love you virus struck aqnd the top brass happily forwarded it to each other. all you had to do was stop the mail server delete all mails and remove the virus 30000 emails entries later hey presto normal service resumes with plenty of egg on the face of the management. always thought it was strange that the md sent the head of resourcess an i love you email lol
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You sound like a pro.
 
For learning Exchange, the proof really is in the pudding with this sort of thing. Until you roll it out in a production environment and have users trying to break it left right and center along with management who want total control of who can do what you won't get any "real" experience of it except the basics.

I would say experiment with the reporting/management side of things such as message size limits, restricting internal/external email for both inbound and outbound, sharing of calendars, mailboxes etc. Also look into disclaimers, mailbox limits and custom warnings for people instead of the automated responses Exchange has, plenty there to get you more familiar with the back end admin side of things.


cr@pbag said:
had to learn exchange on the fly so to say after a day if you haven't masterd it then you need to revieve your job aims. my second day on the job is when the i love you virus struck aqnd the top brass happily forwarded it to each other. all you had to do was stop the mail server delete all mails and remove the virus 30000 emails entries later hey presto normal service resumes with plenty of egg on the face of the management. always thought it was strange that the md sent the head of resourcess an i love you email lol
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Riiiight.... great setup you had then..

Would love to say I mastered Exchange in a day but it looks like I should just stick with lowly desktop stuff as it seems I am not cut out for Exchange.. :rolleyes:
 
paradigm said:
I ALWAYS employ the one with experience, regardless of paper qualifications. Formal courses are (in 9 out of 10 scenarios) next to useless.
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I totally agree that experience > Certs as a general rule.
But we're talking about learning it as a novice, IE has no experience, not going for a senior sysadmin job. If someone has "played about with it at home" I wouldn't class that as relevant experience at all for implementing it in a business environment. IF they have the cert at least they've shown some level of competance and will be aware of best practices etc which will maximiss their chances of actually getting a position where they can obtain some real relevant experience.

Everyone has to start somewhere and the more bits of paper you have behind you the easier it is to get on that first rung of the ladder.
 
paradigm said:
I ALWAYS employ the one with experience, regardless of paper qualifications. Formal courses are (in 9 out of 10 scenarios) next to useless.
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What about similar experience, except one of the candidates has made the effort in his own time to pass the MCSE/MCITP:EA? Why settle for one when you can have both! :)

I agree with Skidilliplop, with no formal experience the employer will want to see willingness to put the effort in and desire to excel and expand his/her skillset. The fact they've bothered to learn, taken courses and passed exams speaks volumes about the candidate. For me it would show a level of 'seriousness', instead of a fairly weak 'had a play with it at home'.

Obviously there will be some people taking exams just to pass by cramming/cheating, but these are easy to spot at the interview process.
 
Thank you for the comments and advice.
I am going to look and see what self study options there are for one of the exams covering Exchange.
At least as noted I can give people some idea of what I have done with it.
I am not wanting a job for Exchange specifically, it's just an area I feel I am weak on when asked or interviewed.
Got it installed on vmware at the moment as well just to look at the basics to start with, although I have done some things like message limits previously.
 
I think there's an Exchange exam you can do as part of an MCSE, which would be worth doing as it covers excahnge and counts towards an MCSE or MCSA. Both of which are rather nice to have on your CV for any job in the IT sector.
 
Skidilliplop said:
I think there's an Exchange exam you can do as part of an MCSE, which would be worth doing as it covers excahnge and counts towards an MCSE or MCSA. Both of which are rather nice to have on your CV for any job in the IT sector.
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70-284

The exam expires on the 31st March 2011 though.
 
Just thought I would add an update as you all helped.
Got some extra memory for my PC and finally got a setup of a DC and two Exchange 2010 servers as a DAG. Just learning it all now but so far so good!

I have Outlook on my main PC so the next step to see if I can access it via that!

In terms of adding mailboxes I assume they are still effectively two servers?
 
Pass. If you were doing it for a high availability environment. I'd imagine you'd treat it as one. Can't help a lot as I've only read up a little on 2010, it's gonna be a while before we upgrade and I frankly I have far too many other projects on right now else i'd be learning it myself :(
 
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