Learning with an eDirectory expert

My old friend Jim Henderson was in town a couple of weeks ago and we found time to catch up on what’s happening in the world of eDirectory. Henderson is the co-author of “Novell’s Guide to Troubleshooting eDirectory” (along with another old friend, Peter Kuo), the very able successor volume to the “Novell’s Guide to Troubleshooting NDS” of a few years ago. I hadn’t seen Henderson in person in a couple of years and a few changes have taken place in that time.

When I first met Henderson a dozen years ago, he was a “still wet behind the ears” tyro who had discovered NetWare and loved it but, more importantly, had discovered Novell Directory Services and saw what it could (and has) become. I’ve watched him go from being a student of the directory to becoming one of the foremost teachers of eDirectory technology and troubleshooting. He’s so good, in fact, that Novell hired him a couple of years ago specifically to teach the directory troubleshooting portion of Novell’s Advanced Technical Training (ATT).

You can learn more about ATT at the official Web site (see editorial link below) where you’ll find offerings in several major areas:

* Servers (NetWare 5.x & 6.x, Cluster Services).

* Application integration (Novell Extend, Novell Portal Services Development).

* Collaboration (GroupWise 5.x & 6.x, Novell NetMail).

* Resource management (ZENworks 6.5 NRM, ZENworks Desktops 3.x & 4, ZENworks for Servers).

* SuSE Linux.

* Novell Nterprise Linux Services.

* Secure identity management (Account Management, BorderManager, eDirectory, iChain, Novell Modular Authentication Services, Nsure Development, Nsure Identity Manager).

These are in addition to the more general topics of networking and TCP/IP.

ATT has grown considerably from the initial three offerings (in NetWare, GroupWise and ZENworks) of a few years ago. So, just in case all of that information and detail is confusing, those of you looking to further explore eDirectory through ATT now have another home on the Internet. Henderson has, on his own time and at his own expense, run up a terrific Web site that covers all you’ll ever need to know about eDirectory Advanced Technical Training: https://ediratt.dyndns.org/

What I find especially noteworthy is the section Henderson has on prerequisites for the course he teaches: “Because of the fast pace of the course, we do not spend time on introductory topics such as installation, basic configuration and administration.” Potential students should:

* Understand how to use the eDirectory Administration tools.

* Understand how to perform directory partition and replica operations.

* Be comfortable working with eDirectory or Novell Directory Services.

* Be familiar with basic daily administration of a production environment.

* Be familiar with basic design techniques for small to midsize environments.

* Know how to run a health check with iMonitor.

This is no class for beginners or wannabes! Still, most of you might meet the criteria and many of you would benefit from the class. I can’t vouch for all the ATT offerings, but if you spend a week with Henderson, apply yourself and learn his troubleshooting methods, your eDirectory should continue to function flawlessly for many years to come.