‘First Class’ NetWare education

Last week, I encouraged those of you wishing to learn more about NetWare 6.5 to think about taking CAN and CNE certification classes for the new operating systems when the courses are rolled out this fall. This could be useful, particularly given the lack of interest by publishers in bringing out decent books covering the next Novell NOS.

I was quickly reminded by friend and fellow author Jim Henderson that NetWare certification classes are not the only form of NetWare education offered by Novell. Novell’s Advanced Technical Training (ATT) classes offer hands-on, in-depth sessions that are head-and-shoulders above the certification classes if what you want to know is the details about the technology. I should mention that Jim is also one of the ATT instructors, not that he’s biased or anything.

I’ve taken some of the ATT classes myself and I can attest that they are better than the certification classes, better than reading a book and even better than simply playing around in the lab doing “discovery.” These classes are better because you’re learning by doing, and an expert is available to guide you and answer your questions. The textbook you’ll walk away with (and your notes) are more up-to-date than anything the big publishing houses (including Novell Press) are offering. Finally, they’re better because the classes are designed for real world enterprise-computing situations, not as a cram session to help you pass a test.

Novell is already offering the “NetWare 6.5 First Class” two-day training session (first sessions started in late May) at dozens of locations around the U.S. (see https://www.novell.com/training/pep/register.html#nw65 for cities and dates).

Also check the offer of a $100 discount if you book the NetWare 6.5 First Class back-to-back with the Novell Cluster Services ATT course (https://www.novell.com/training/promotions/).

Day one of the two-day NetWare 6.5 First Class focuses on the open source tools (Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP) that ship with NetWare 6.5, as well as the “Virtual Office” components of the NOS (including iPrint, iFolder 2.1, eGuide, and Virtual Teams).

Day two features hands-on instruction on NetWare 6.5’s Branch Office solution as well as in-depth instruction on the server migration and consolidation utility, snapshot backup, and iSCSI for storage-area networks included in NetWare 6.5.

Go into this class with a desire to learn how to exploit NetWare 6.5 to the fullest and you’ll come away with the knowledge and techniques necessary to implement the new NOS as a major benefit to your enterprise.

Of course, you don’t get “certified” from the course – there are no initials you can add after your name, and it would be harder to convince the bean counters to pay the not insignificant cost of the training. But NetWare 6.5 is the best NOS you can get and this training is the best you can get about NetWare. It’s well worth the effort you’ll need to put in.