In Glen's words....
SharePoint raises its own special challenges for a trainer, it is has massive breadth, and for a new student it can seem counterintuitive at times. In 5 days a trainer can help a lot to make this product accessible.
Tip 1. Add value with real life examples from your consulting experience.
The course as a Technical Specialist course concentrates on the “how”, leaving the following course (MOC 10231 ITPro) to concentrate on the “why”. However, grasping the “how” is made easier if one understands why certain technical decisions were made, and this task it made easier by anecdotes and even “horror stories” of what happens when best practices are ignored (naturally with names changed to protect the people involved!).
Tip 2.Teach for the future.
SharePoint is a living product and its documentation is not cast in stone. The course does an excellent job of navigating the MSDN/TechNet documentation even where contradictions exist. I was impressed how the High Availability part navigated thru some of the issues that I blogged about here:
http://software-smith.blogspot.com/2011/01/recipe-sharepoint-2010.html
Similarly I was impressed with the handling of Remote Blob storage, especially the explanation of the FILESTREAM provider being a simple provider not a high performance provider. That SharePoint backup of RBS using FILESTREAM does backup the blobs was also handled correctly, I have not often seen the correct information published! The SQL backup command also does so. The lab has a small bug that can be quickly fixed by renaming rbs.msi to rbs_x64.msi.
It is good to teach the students how to find the latest information, and use it when making decisions. Some students will rush thru the labs, others will take more time, making sure they completely understand each step. It is good to have extra challenges ready for the “speed kings” where they learn to find the answers on TechNet. This also helps others not to feel unduly pressured if they take longer. The faster the machines are for the labs, the better for the class.
Tip 3. Create a relaxed atmosphere.
Adding humor to the mix, helps create the relaxed atmosphere in which we learn best. Even mistakes in the course can be used to bring across teaching points, a technical publication of this breadth cannot entirely avoid mistakes. I could not resist a grin where it is stated that V1 and V2 of SharePoint had no command line interface, and that Stsadm was a new feature added in SharePoint 2007! The name alone betrays its heritage (2003) without having to bring back (repressed) memories of owsadmin from 2001.
Tip 4. Mind the Gaps.
The course is not designed to teach to the test, it is not an exam cram. There are naturally going to be gaps, you may want to point your students to the objectives for the exams, so that they cover these objectives completely in their exam preparation. It would be not possible in 5 days to cover everything they may need in real life so you may have to point your students at addition material (for example Content Management and Workflows). My personal wish would be for some of the topics in the last modules to be handled in more detail, but as my students can likely testify, I am quite happy to elaborate on the joys and pitfalls of Alternate Access Mappings without much prompting.
The course was not made as a delta for those who had SharePoint 2007 experience. This was a good decision, but naturally in a class where many have SharePoint 2007 experience; it will help if the instructor makes the differences clear.
Tip 5. Keep on learning.
Pretending to know everything about SharePoint is not a good idea. SharePoint Masters continually learn about the product, the MCM motto is “Know what you know, know what you don’t know, and never confuse the two.” I am learning every week and I learn from each class, the students have often different backgrounds and experience, and no two people will respond to the same information the same way.
Feel free to contact me “glen” at “software-smith.com” for consulting or training needs, or to peruse the following sites:
http://software-smith.blogspot.com/
www.software-smith.com
Virtualization courses (10324: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Desktop Virtualization, 50273: Planning and Designing Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, 10215: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization, 6422: Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V) have been in the training spotlight for this quarter. Learning Partners from all around the world have signed-up for the campaign and have set-up incredible special offers for traditional classroom training, online, or blended solutions leveraging Microsoft Official Curriculum. I wanted to take a moment to provide a bit of information on the partners who have made these offers possible to BTL participants. In order for partners to earn the Learning competency, they must fulfill annual requirements to uphold their standing as leading providers of comprehensive learning solutions on Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Learning Partners are:
1. Credible, valuable, trustworthy - Microsoft requires that its Learning Partners demonstrate their expertise as leading providers of comprehensive learning solutions on Microsoft technologies, resulting in customer satisfaction among individuals and companies that use them for training.
2). First to market with the latest Microsoft-approved course materials - Microsoft Learning Partners provide the most comprehensive selection of learning solutions on Microsoft technologies.
3). Breadth of solutions - Microsoft Learning Partners offer a breadth of solutions to suit training needs, from classroom training to distance learning.
We hope that you have found these partners’ special offers and their services beneficial to you. Keep a look out for new offers coming available in January for the Office 365 portfolio. Offers will be available for courses:
SharePoint
10174A
Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010
10231A
Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure
Exchange
10135
Configuring, Managing and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
10233
Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Lync
10533A
Deploying, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Lync Server 2010
10534A
Planning and Designing a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Solution
Feel free to let us know if you have redeemed any of the Training Spotlight offers and your training experience with them.
Lisa
A few months back, Microsoft Learning Product Planner, Eamonn Kelly shared perspective on the lab experience from course 10215A: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization. If you have not signed up for Virtualization training, Learning Partners are offering special offers on four popular Virtualization courses this quarter. Take a look at current offers to the right.
Eamonn's post:
10215A released in October 2010 and in that short period time it has become one of our most popular courses in terms of positive feedback submitted via MTM. This five day server virtualization course covers a lot of technologies and functionality. At a high level it covers Hyper-V, SCVMM 2008 R2, Integration with SCOM 2008 R2, DPM 2007 Sp1 as well as RDS. So it’s a broad set of technologies and students should come away from it with a good understanding of what the options and pitfalls are when considering virtualizing a server infrastructure. As well as this, it also prepares students for the 70-659: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization exam.
The lab experience for students was one of the key drivers when designing the course and as such the requirements for the labs are above the standard spec, namely a single host running Windows server 2008 RTM. In this course the Instructor and each student require two host machines running Windows Server 2008 R2. Labs covering High Availability, in Module 9 for example, will not be able to be completed unless this is available, but this "above standard" spec does provide an excellent and real world lab experience. Definitely to be recommended to students!
I will return to post additional bogs on the actual content covered in the course both this week and next and will dig a bit deeper into the labs to try explain why decisions were made and why some items were covered as they are.
If there are any specific questions around the labs or the course feel free to post them here and I'll try my best to answer!
Thanks,
Eamonn,
As more companies move to Cloud computing, it opens up new opportunities for IT professionals and technical skill sets become more critical to career success. And with the capability to build and adapt their existing skills, savvy professionals should view new cloud opportunities as a chance to expand upon and grow their portfolio of skills. Our newly released White Paper "Cloud Computing: What IT Professionals Need to Know" provides an early look at emerging roles and skill sets that IT professionals and Developers should look to acquire to build cloud computing solutions. The paper describes what the cloud offers and how it applies to and impacts existing infrastructure, including such issues as cost, security, data control, and integrity.
Learn more about cloud computing.
One word: virtualization.
According to a recent study conducted by IT mega-retailer CDW, 25% of small businesses are already using virtualization in their server environments, but even more impressively, 73% of those not using virtualization are planning to over the next two years.
That 73% is the slice of pie you should be wetting your chops for. Those businesses are going to need an expert to guide them into this new territory, and they will be willing to pay for it. If you are getting certified in virtualization, you are positioning yourself for the upper hand, and likely a handsome increase in your paycheck.
The numbers don’t lie; the trend is clear—virtualization is being adopted with our without you. Without becoming an expert in virtualization now, you are passing up the opportunity to show your company’s board how you can cut costs and increase ROI on its IT budget, or be scooped up by one of the 25% or 73% we talked about earlier.
The credential you will want to possess is the MCITP: Virtualization Administrator, attainable with the following certification exams:
I earned all of these certifications earlier this year, and can tell you from experience how in-demand it made my resume. I’m a Sr. Systems Engineer and Technical Trainer for an IT consulting and firm (among other things) in the Washington, DC area, and although I decided to stay where I am (loving it!), the offers I saw during my search several months ago came flowing in. The feedback from employers and recruiters was unanimous that the demand was due to my certification level and virtualization expertise. There’s no doubt that now is the time companies need to move to virtualization, and they are willing to pay for it.
Microsoft has top-notch courses that will take you deep through the intricacies of each topic, not only preparing your for the exam, but most importantly, preparing you for the real world. That’s the key here; you don’t just want to memorize enough information to pass the test, you want to gain real expertise—that’s what’s going to make the difference, and that’s what the Microsoft Official Curricula are designed to do. Here are the corresponding courses for these certifications:
The combination of all three will take you from zero to virtualization hero through 15 days of in-classroom training, combined with hands on labs.
See you in class!
The goal of this course is to introduce and use the BI features in SQL Server 2008 R2 business intelligence platform. The Microsoft BI stack enables users to utilize familiar tools such as Excel to gain insight. In order to take advantage of the stck, BI professionals must understand the R2 features and components to enable these users.
This 3 day ILT course focuses on the new features SQL Server 2008 R2 for BI specialists. The primary audience for this course is BI Professionals who have 3-4 years of experience with SQL Server. This course covers new and enhanced features in SQL Server 2008 R2 that relate to Business Intelligence, PowerPivot to create self-service BI solutions, new and enhanced Reporting Services tools, StreamInsight to create an application that captures and analyzes streams of event data and Integrate data from SQL Azure into a SQL Server BI solution.
When teaching 10264, a lot of web architecture questions arise about the differences between how to structure an application when using web forms or MVC. My intention of this post is to answer some of these questions.
Let's start out with some basics, a classical three-layered approach, where each layer has different responsibilities: User interface: display data/information and handle all interaction with userBusiness service: Business logic - responsible for enforcing business rules and provide methods used by user interface. A business rule for an B2B e-commerce site could be that if there are outstanding payments for a certain customers, that customer cannot place new orders. Or when registering a new user, a valid email adress must be entered so that we can send order confirmations later. Data Access Layer: Does CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete) operations to the database (or perhaps several databases, web services, file system) to store or retrieve data. Can also do some Object/Relational mapping.
Besides these three layers, a domain model is designed for all objects that are important in the application domain containing their properties and relationships. This could be the Order class, Customer class etc.These domain classes are used by all layers, for instance if the UI wants to get all orders for a customer, the UI code creates an instance of the BSCustomer class, calls a method BSCustomer.GetAllOrders(customerId). The BSCustomer class creates an instance of the DALCustomer class, calls a method DALCustomer.GetAllOrders(customerId) and calls the database somehow (by stored procedure, T-SQL string, or OR-mapping framework) and returns a list of Order domain objects, which the UI shows to the user.
Figure: Three layered architecture and some code. Not included in this picture: settings passed to layers (conn strings etc), security checks, error handling and other *details*...
At it's simplest, a BS method just calls a DAL method directly, but it often contains validation (is this user allowed to do this, are all parameters OK, etc) or calls several DAL classes and methods. So the BS layer provides an abstraction for the DAL layer, that contains more details. BS contains methods (and support methods) for doing things that provide actual business value to the application (driven by the UI, such as PlaceOrder) and hides the actual DAL details, making it easy for all that use the BS layer.
By doing this, we have a clear separation of concerns between our layers. The DAL can be rebuilt to use another database, or OR-mapping tool and as long as the interface used by BS does not change and each layer can be developed, refactored and tested separately. By using custom domain objects, the UI does not have to know details about the database (for instance, if the order status is stored using a string, number, relations to other table, etc).
The need for BS methods and domain objects is driven by the needs of the consumers - the UI, and if many applications use the same BS layer, all needs have to be considered.
How about using more layers?There is no upper limit to the numbers of layers that can be used. We could build a three layered app for a mobile device, which then calls a web service, that has it's own layers. That's 6. Don't do this just for fun. Start easy. Put classes in different folders to start with. Put them into separate visual studio projects when there is an actual need to separate the assemblies, for instance if they will be used by other applications.
Do you write unit tests? Instead of having hard coded dependencies between layers (UI must know how to create a BSCustomer class with certain methods), we can create an interface (like IBSCustomer) that the UI uses. This way we can change the BS-layer to any other implementation as long as if implements the same interface. By using a Factory pattern (link), we can let some other component be responsible for creating our BSCustomer class. Dependency Injection could also to the same. Hence, we get classes more loosely coupled to each other and according to the SOLID principles, a better object oriented design, which will be easy to write tests for.
Done with the basics!
How does this map to ASP.NET web forms?A typical approach would be to let the code behind use the business layer to retrieve data, which is bound to to asp.net server controls. The communication with business layer is done by using our domain model. If UI developers like to use datasources and UI wizards, set up BS classes and methods to use a ObjectDataSource.
ASP.NET MVC uses a model to handle database access, will this ruin our 3-layered approach?The MVC approach is in the ASP.NET context, a way to build the UI layer in a structured and testable manner. It does not interfere with other parts of the architecture.
Yes, it is possible to use an OR-mapping tool to build a domain model as well and also handle all database actions, but it does not have to be done like this. The Model in ASP.NET MVC is practically a View-model - a model used to serve data to the view, and to simplify development of views for the front end coder. Often two different models are used - one domain model used by all layers, and one model used by the UI. They might be very similar, but do not have to be, since they have different responsibilities. Another approach is using several UI models, one for displaying data and one for fetching data. Keep in mind, MVC is primarily used to structure the UI.
What if Entity framework is used, how will this affect the architecture?In most examples and quick demos during the course, Entity framework is used. In these examples, EF defines the Domain model (same as the MVC Model in these examples), the DAL and to simplify MVC examples, the business layer is not included. Still, keep the overall picture above in mind! With code first in EF (nice features in 4.1), this will be clearer. You create your own domain model, and define a data context class to use them in EF. Scott Guthrie has written a post about this: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/16/code-first-development-with-entity-framework-4.aspx
Use the course as a way to share your experiences and ideas regarding architecture with your course mates. Real life examples (and problems) are fun! Does your business slow down during the summer? Use this opportunity to take a course :-)
I am glad to be able to blog about my experiences prepping and teaching 10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 in a series of posts.
I have taught the course 3 times; I am currently scheduled to teach it again at least 2 times in the very near future.
My first impression of the course, its contents and labs is positive. My student experiences have also been generally positive.
On a personal note I was very glad to see that the course content includes web development technologies besides Web Forms, including MVC 2.0 and JQuery.
MVC 2.0 and Web Forms are first compared at a high level in module 1. In this module I emphasize that MVC and Web Forms can be used together in the same Web site; they are not mutually exclusive. Many of my students are experienced Web Form developers. They had concerns that their investment in Web Form technology was going to be “obsoleted” by MVC.
To help illustrate to students that Web Forms and MVC could co-exist within the same project I added a Web Form (.aspx) with some simple server side code (i.e. display the date in a literal control) to the ASP.NET MVC web application created in the demonstration found in Module 1.3. I then display this Web Form (.aspx) in the browser to show that it works. This small demo showing that a project could host MVC and Web Forms helped ease student angst about any perceived fear of Web Form “obsolescence”.
As I moved to slides in Module 1.4 it seemed to work well to put breakpoints in the Web Form (aspx) server side code as well as in the HomeController Index action method. I make sure that the Index action is the current tab in Visual Studio. Then, I run the project in debug mode (F5). When the breakpoint is hit I display the Call Stack Debug window (be sure that the option Show External Code is selected; right click in the Call Stack Window to select this option). Note in the window that before the MVC .dlls there is a dll with a name System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication. Stop debugging. Then make the Web Form the start page and run the project in debug mode again. When the .aspx code breakpoint is hit, in the Call Stack window note that the System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication also appears.
This shows that both Web Forms and MVC share some common ASP.NET processing in the pipeline. This demonstration supports the slide materials in Module 1.4. I mention that certain ASP.NET features exist in both Web Forms and MVC as they reside in the common portion of the ASP.NET pipeline; for example output caching. I reinforce the concept that not only can Web Forms and MVC “live together” but that certain features work the exact same way, again noting that certain Web Form knowledge can be leveraged in the MVC world.
There certainly more for me to share—please stay tuned.
We are excited to have this course in the spotlight. Web is our traditional hot developer track for Microsoft Learning and there are exciting technologies in this course to get you beyond the basics. The basics are covered in our introductory course, or Web developers may have picked up skills elsewhere. To help position this course we wanted to make some quick statements about what is in scope and what is expected knowledge.
While the introductory Web developer training course (10267A) focuses on Web Forms and Web application basics, 10264 is for developers who are responsible for creating advanced Web applications and may work as part of a larger development team. This training course is for developers who have knowledge of HTML and who are comfortable with the latest the Visual Studio tools. In this course, developers who have 1-3 years of Web development experience and who are familiar with HTML, Visual Studio, and .Net languages, will learn to develop Web applications using the ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) development model. In addition to introducing students to MVC, this course also focuses on optimizing Web applications with client side scripting. Technologies like Ajax and JQUERY are implemented throughout the labs to create a real world application that also prepares the student for the Web Developer Technology Specialist certification exam 70-515.
Enjoy
Colin Lyth and Chris Howd
Microsoft struck a gold mine with the release of Windows 7. It was just the kind of OS, every Windows User ever wanted. Fast, Feature Oriented, Sleek, Reliable and Stable. It struck a chord with both; the Enterprise Users as well as the Home Users. The popularity of Windows 7 stems from the announcement recently made by Microsoft that in the eighteen months Windows 7 has been available; the Software Giant has already sold 350 million licenses.
The rapid adoption of Windows 7 clearly indicates the need to have the right plan, tools and technologies to help customers move from their older versions of Windows (Windows XP, Windows Vista) to Windows 7. Microsoft does provide a suite of Deployment Tools that can help an organization transition to Windows 7. This includes Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM), Windows Deployment Services (WDS), Windows Automated Installation Toolkit (WAIK) etc. So, if you boil it all down, the job of a Deployment Consultant is to use these Microsoft tools, devise a cost effective plan and then finally upgrade to Windows 7. That would be pretty easy, if we didn’t have to worry about three ‘little’ questions that bother each Desktop Administrator or a Consultant;
1) Which is the ‘right’ tool for my or my Customer’s environment?
2) How would I handle Applications that are not compatible with Windows 7?
3) And finally, how to use these tools to deploy Windows 7 with minimal or no user impact?
If you have been pondering over these questions as well, then put your concerns to rest. Microsoft Learning has a solution for you and it goes by the name of:
Course 6294A: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments
Let’s take a look at what this course covers and how it can help you accelerate your or your customer’s Windows 7 Deployments.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?id=6294A
Alright, so doesn’t the course look promising? In a nutshell, by completing this course you should be able to
§ Prepare to deploy Windows 7 business desktops.
§ Assess and resolve application compatibility issues with Windows 7.
§ Determine the most appropriate method to deploy Windows 7 based upon specific business requirements.
§ Design a standard Windows 7 image by assessing and evaluating the business requirements.
§ Deploy Windows 7 by using WAIK.
§ Deploy Windows 7 by using WDS.
§ Deploy Windows 7 by using Lite Touch Installation.
§ Deploy Windows 7 by using Zero Touch Installation.
§ Migrate user state by using Windows Easy Transfer and User State Migration Tool 4.0.
§ Design, configure, and manage the Windows 7 client environment.
§ Plan and deploy applications and updates to Windows 7 client computers.
§ Plan and deploy Windows 7 by using LTI. (Lab-Only Module)
I won’t go into the specifics of each and every module of this course. You can refer the link above to get more details of that. What I really want to share is how this course can transform you into a Deployment ‘Consultant’ in the real sense of the term.
Course 6294A teaches you stuff for the “real world”. It is more of less based on the Microsoft Operations Framework covering all the phases of the Desktop Deployment Lifecycles.
The course begins with the overview of the Desktop Lifecycle and walks you through the deployment challenges and considerations, tools used to architect a deployment strategy, accessing the existing infrastructure using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool and choosing the right Activation Strategy. This is crucial as it can help you gauge the existing infrastructure and design an appropriate plan. As the Great Abraham Lincoln said and I quote, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. This is so very true and applicable to every deployment project. Lack of planning and a proper vision may save you some time, but you would have your customers baying for your blood if the deployment goes wrong or proves to be a hole in the pocket.
Module 2 covers one of the biggest challenges for Desktop Deployment; Application Compatibility.It teaches you how to use the Application Compatibility Toolkit to inventory applications that are not compatible with Windows 7 and them to Windows 7 using various remediation techniques.
One striking feature of this course is that it slowly steers you through the entire process of Envisioning, Planning, Application Portfolio Management, Deploying and Maintaining. The MCT teaching this course can add value by chipping in with his/her consulting experiences while working on deployment projects.
Module 3 helps answering the question “Which deployment mechanism is right for my environment?” while Module 4 to Module 8 cover the “how to do” aspect of it. While you have your Users all excited as they move to a new platform, you really don’t want their excitement to subside by figuring out that they seem to have lost their “personalized” Windows which they have been using for years together. Module 9 guides us through the process of migrating user state data by leveraging the USMT and the WET tools.
Module 10 addresses the concerns of “determining the method for implementing the client configurations” by examining how to design, configure, and manage Windows® 7 client configurations. This focus of Module 11 involves the explanation of Configuration Manager, GPO and RDS/TS RemoteApp, along with considerations for using different file types of application file types.
The course climaxes with an extensive lab which provides an opportunity to perform an end-to-end deployment of Windows 7 by using the LTI cementing the concepts you learnt throughout the course.
The Labs used in this course are top notch and will surely help you getting your feet wet with related deployment technologies transforming you from being a novice to an expert.
Next Steps
All MCTs are certified instructors and bring years of teaching/educational/consulting experience on the table. Know your instructor prior to the course. ‘Bing’ about him/her. If he/she has a blog, go through the posts. Not that all MCTs have blogs, but a reputed CLPS or a training center will surely give you the best instructor in the industry. Look for promotional offers. There are plenty in the Training Spotlight section.
Killing two birds in one shot!
Apart from preparing you to face real world Windows 7 deployment challenges, this course maps to the MCITP Exam 70-686: Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator. So in other words, you get best of both worlds. By teaching you skills required for this exam it helps you pass the exam with flying colors thereby making your resume stand out as compared to others.
Stay current by following the Deployment Guys blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/
Reading and then applying what you've learned is important. Practice, practice, practice as part of your learning process. Take one step at a time, and remember to breathe! Stand before you walk and walk before you run J. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. The course book can always be your handy reference.
Wishing you all the best!
Cheers,
Manoj
Hi, I’m Martin DelRe, portfolio manager for Windows 7 Training and Certification in Microsoft Learning. I you’ve ever deployed new versions of Windows clients, IE, and desktop/mobile applications, then I don’t need to tell you how important it is to consider the needs of your users and organization in advance, determine which deployment methods are best suited to your environment, and select which deployment tools you’ll use in the process. It’s also very important to anticipate potential problems or trade-offs you might encounter along the way and resolve those issues before end users get involved. And you’ll want to optimize security and performance while minimizing any potential support calls.
In a nutshell, that’s what course 6294 helps you do. This course does not shy away from the potential “little gotchas” either - like application compatibility, activation, user state and data migration, security, networking, and profile and policy decisions. You’ll also benefit from the experience of Microsoft Certified Trainers and other IT Pros who’ve been through this before. Moreover, course 6294 will help you standardize results and minimize your work by helping you design and implement reliable low touch or even zero touch deployments with a combination of Microsoft tools and processes. Finally, if you’re pursing the MCITP credential for Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Administrator, course 6294 and its prerequisites are a great way to prepare for Exam 70-686.
When you have a few minutes, check out the syllabus for course 6294. If you decide to take the course, I believe you’ll find it’s time well spent and I’m sure your users and support team will feel that way too. Windows 7 is great stuff - go for it!
Hi, I am Glen (Software) Smith, Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint and I love teaching.
As a veteran SharePoint professional consultant, trainer and SharePoint Certified Master, a large percentage of my professional time is spent mentoring developers and administrators in classrooms, boardrooms and cubicles.
If you were to ask me for the core set of knowledge needed to get started with managing a SharePoint deployment, it would be close to matching the outline for 10174 - Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010. While this course will only introduce you to some of the more complex areas of SharePoint Administration, it is an excellent starting point for someone involved with planning and preparing an upgrade from SharePoint 2007, or tasked with new administration responsabilities on SharePoint 2010.
As a new Administrator on SharePoint 2010, what would I want to learn?
The course provides a broad set of modules that introduces the student to answers to all of these questions including a basic understanding of the SharePoint 2010 platform architecture, security fundamentals, hands-on configuration of the essential service applications such as Search, User Profiles, Managed Metadata, and the Office Web Applications, and the operational essentials of health and performance monitoring, and disaster recovery.
There are a lot of choices in training these days, and a lot of excellent books and videos - why this course? There are a number of advantages to this course that make it ideal for someone just getting started with SharePoint 2010:
For more technical guidance on my experience with SharePoint, you can find my blog at http://blog.sharepointbits.com.
This might seem odd to some of you. Why should a developer sit an admin course? The answer is simple. Because it is a great course!
I have had the pleasure of teaching a wide array of SharePoint courses over the last three years. Thanks to my field experience in SharePoint 2007 I could add the necessary value to the sales pitch courses 5060 and 5061 when they first came out. When 50047, the advanced IT admin course hit the market I was excited about teaching it. It included all the missing puzzle pieces and was truly a good course for SharePoint admins. the 50047 course was nearly on par with the Mindsharp/Combined Knowledge administrator course which I have had the chance to teach in the past as well.
But the question remains, why teach a SharePoint admin course to developers? Because you need to learn how to walk before you start to run. Many new SharePoint developers are new to the whole SharePoint world. They come from Windows, Java or Lotus development and are thrown into SharePoint development. If I'm lucky, they will have some ASP.NET experience. Most of them don't :-(. Before trying to learn how to develop a solution package, it might make sense to understand the built in features first. Before writing a timer job it might help to know what the jobs are, how they are run and why they are important. Before designing a feature receiver which makes a change to the environment it might help to understand the distributed architecture of SharePoint. Developing a custom login page for claims based authentication? Learn some IIS, NTLM and Kerberos basics first! 10174 is a great introduction to SharePoint as a platform. It covers all the building blocks that make up a SharePoint farm and more.
So before you try to break the world record in creating stable web parts in under 10s, make sure you have a thorough understanding of the SharePoint architecture first. Those five days in a room with someone who knows SharePoint inside out will save you months of trial and error, headaches and ruined relationships. You will know where to look for the log files. You will know how and why to create new web applications, site collections and sub sites. You will know how to configure your service applications, especially Search. And maybe you will get the one or other development specific tip as well, such as a impromptu demo of the new SPDiag tool which is a gem for admins and developers alike.
Read more SharePoint rants, thoughts and ideas on my blog at mctalex.blogspot.com
I wanted to take a moment and share my experiences with Microsoft Learning course 10174: Configuring and Administering SharePoint 2010. I am a Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint 2010 and a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and I have led this course in 4 separate occasions.
Let's say you just scored a support contract for a few years and SharePoint 2010 is included in the systems you have to support. Or maybe you are a partner and need ITPRO's to support either your development team or your client's infrastructure. Maybe you need to get your consultants more up-to-date with the different configuration options in SharePoint 2010?
This course is perfect for exposing yourself, or your team, to a broad set of ITPRO topics related to SharePoint 2010. It covers many of the most common functionality pieces of the platform and takes candidates through hands-on experience on many fronts. You get to see the big picture and configure key components involved in many SharePoint deployments. You get overall knowledge of SharePoint.
10174: Configuring and Administering SharePoint 2010 is a course at a Technology Specialist level. It is the first course that you should take in relation to SharePoint 2010 configuration and it is a prerequisite for the more advanced 10231A: Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure.
The course provides an overview and hands-on experience in using & configuring key functionality. Most topics are introduced from the ground up, giving candidates the background knowledge of each piece of functionality, then covering the technicality and concluding with lab work. The interesting part is that the technical depth is flexible and can be controlled by a good trainer. I have delivered this course to candidates who have seen SharePoint for the first time and to candidates who have a few years of experience with SharePoint. I have been able to adjust the depth based on the interaction and questions asked during delivery.
This one might be obvious, but well worth the mention here. There is no doubt that SharePoint Masters believe in certification and that they have taken an incredibly long path to get certified at such a level. A SharePoint Master understands learning curves and how to prepare to become one of the most advanced SharePoint specialists in the world. Their experience in learning activities is very valuable in facilitating an entire class to advance in SharePoint.
The second point is also very valid. SharePoint Masters have proven their experience and deep knowledge of the platform. They are experts in their field and have exposure to some of the largest and most advanced SharePoint deployments globally. Masters can add value to the training experience by enriching the course material with practical examples from real life experience.
I'm a technical guy and a professional trainer working independently. I dedicate 80% of my time to consulting and project delivery and the rest for training on SharePoint 2010. I am usually out there on the field deeply involved with providing architecture, development and expert opinion on SharePoint, but I have to say training is extremely fun and much less political. I get to meet MANY people that cross paths with SharePoint. I share my stories and listen to the stories of my students, then keep in contact. I research, learn then share my findings. I challenge and get challenged. I do my best to not sell, but tell the story as it is (I'm not from Microsoft!).
Here are some screenshots from Metrics That Matter on my instructor ratings:
Feel free to contact me on "radi" at "sharepoint.bg" for any consulting, training or development needs, or follow my blog http://www.sharepoint.bg/radi, or follow me on Twitter: @RadiAtanassov.
My Blog: http://www.sharepoint.bg/radi/
Course 10174: Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Certified Master on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Course 10174: Configuring SharePoint 2010 anytime soon in your server farm?
Why course 10174: Configuring and Administering SharePoint 2010 will help you
Hi, I am Manoj Joshi. I am the Portfolio Manager with Microsoft Learning (MSL) for SharePoint 2010. As John, my counterpart from SharePoint Team pointed out in the other blog post; I wanted to second his assessment that course 10174: Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a top quality course in the MSL SharePoint portfolio. Our satisfaction survey confirms this is indeed an excellent one to help you prepare for exam Exam 70-667: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
Here are some of my favorite topics from this course:
· Administer SharePoint using the user interface, the command line,
and Windows PowerShell
· Configure farms, servers, service applications, and web applications
· Install, upgrade, configure, and operate a SharePoint farm
· Configure high availability and recoverability
· Monitor and optimize SharePoint performance
Feel free to leave any comments, I will be happy to respond.
Thanks for reading my blog. Manoj
Hello, my name is John Hormaechea and I work for the SharePoint Product Marketing Group. I work with Microsoft Learning (MSL) on content that our customers and partners consume and use to successfully deploy SharePoint 2010 in their organizations and their customers. Over the past 9 months I've had the opportunity to speak with various people in the field who have taken this course. The one common theme I keep on hearing: this is some of the best content around SharePoint 2010 to date.
SharePoint 2010 is a very robust product, covering Collaboration, Social, Enterprise/Web Content Management, Search, BI, and LOB app creation. You need to get a good foundation if you are new to SharePoint to really understand how it can provide extended value to an organization. Course 10174 does just that for IT Professionals. More details at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Course.aspx?ID=10174A&Locale=en-us#tab2.
Microsoft worked hard to get true SharePoint experts that work with this product day in and day out to create all our 2010 content. It shows in improvements for all our courses and exams (including Exam 70-667 for this course).
MSL will provide further details for course 10174 in an upcoming blog post. If you have suggestions or questions on this course and others, please leave a comment and we'll respond.
Thank you - John
Hi, I was the Learning Product Planner in Microsoft Learning who worked on the 10215A: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization course.
New Learning Partner offers are NOW available for Course 10215: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization. Learn to manage and implement Server Virtualization technologies within your network (Windows Server 2008 knowledge required). Check back frequently for new training offers from Microsoft Learning Partners.
Check out all the great offers from Microsoft Learning Partners for course 10159. Eamonn provided a great overview of what you’ll get from the course in his recent blog. If you are still unsure, check out the course outline http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?ID=10159A&Locale=en-us Registration for this course is required by the end of the month to enjoy the savings.
Hi All, I’m a Learning Product Planner in MS Learning and I work on the Windows Server 2008 Portfolio of moc and eLearning titles. I was lucky enough to work on the 10159A: Updating Your Windows Server® 2008 Technology Skills to Windows Server® 2008 R2 title and just want to share with you some of my experiences on it and also to outline what our intentions and goals were with it and how we tried to achieve that in what I ultimately think is a really good course.
The 10159A is a WS08 R2 exclusive course. The three days of training are specifically targeted for people with existing Windows Server 2008 skills, so it is intended for students who are already highly skilled. Coupled with this, the R2 release adds some really ground breaking functionality to Windows Server 2008 and with 10159A we wanted to bring that to life for students and provide them with as much opportunity as possible to be hands on with the technology.
So the goal with this title was to create a course that takes account of the skilled audience, allow them to get as hands on a possible with the new technologies and features in WS08 R2 and in that context provide a framework in which MCTs can bring their unique experiences and knowledge to their audiences.
Overall, the labs, as is always the case with moc, are a key element, but especially more so in this case because of some unique requiements. There was a dilemma when designing the labs in that some of the requirements are non-standard in terms of lab setup and it needed to be decided how best to showcase those new technologies and allow people get hands on. Two prominent technologies which were key drivers in that conversation were Live Migration and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Ultimately it was decided that the use of the physical host would be needed and it would be required to be WS08 R2 Enterprise or higher. Not only this, but it would also require two host machines. Having this environment would allow the course to expose some core functionality in the labs for students.
So let’s pick a couple of the key technologies that the 10159A covers.
Module 3 covers changes that have taken place with PowerShell in Windows Server 2008 R2 and these changes have been quite significant. R2 ships with PowerShell V2.0, and comes with over 240 pre-built cmdlets (a large percentage of those being new) as well the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), there are new cmdlets for Active Directory, RMS, group Policy, Failover Clustering and lots of others. The course covers these new changes as well as some others and also tries to expand upon the limited exposure some students may have had with PowerShell previously, before going on to cover its implementation in the labs with AD, IIS and Roles and Features.
In Module 5 we cover Server Virtualization with Hyper-V. The main coverage here is in relation to Live Migration, one of the two technologies that drove the decision to require two host machines, as well as other key changes in R2 such as hot adding or removing of iSCSI storage devices, vhd improvements and others. We also touch on improvements and interoperability with System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Also because Live Migration depends on Failover Clustering we touch on Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) and Failover Clustering Validation. In the lab, students will configure the failover clustering piece and then move onto the Live Migration piece and to complete those two elements we use the physical host again. It can be a tricky enough lab but does allow students to get very hands on.
Module 6 covers Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Formerly called Terminal Services, RDS provides a lot of new functionality and changes, not only in the nomenclature. We show how users can access remote applications in RemoteApp and access to virtual machine based desktops and the interaction with Windows 7. As well as this we also cover RDS support for VDI, which loosely, is an alternative method for managing and provisioning desktops to users with more functionality and control over the process. Again, It is essential that students get hands on and get a good feel for how it works so the labs in this module try to achieve this by publishing remote applications, working with the remote desktop gateway and also configuring a virtual desktop pool. As with the Module 5 lab, use of the physical host is also required in this instance to provide the best possible lab experience.
I’ve only touched on a few of the modules and the technologies they contain but hopefully you get a feel for what the course covers, why it covers it and how that translated into actual content and labs in the released course. It’s a delicate balance between the content and labs, the audience attending and the experience and knowledge that MCTs bring to the classroom and I believe that the balance is right in this course and ultimately students will get the best possible experience.
The list of changes to Windows Server 2008 with R2 that are covered in this course really is huge. There is Direct Access, Live Migration, VPC reconnect, significant changes to IIS, Hyper –V and PowerShell, Changes to Active Directory such as the AD Administrative Centre, the Best Practice Analyser, Offline Domain join & the AD Re-cycle bin, changes to Group Policy around Applocker and Audit policies, BranchCache and DFS as well as the rollout of Remote Desktop Services and VDI. There are too many to name them all and I’ve only named a portion of the features here, so all of this and more makes for a great three day course for people with a lab environment tailored specifically for the technologies. For anyone who wants to get their existing Windows Server 2008 skills updated to Windows Server 2008 R2 this is the course for you!