Throwing a question to the gallery

[arkady.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping for some advice from fellow admins here.

I'm the newest addition to the sysadmin team, and the head of the team has asked us all to think about training courses for next year. The NT/Windows guy is currently working his way through the MCSE. The Unix sysadmin has requested Solaris and Cisco. And now I'm trying to decide what I'd like to do. (I'm mostly desktop support on Macs and WinXP at present but the intention is for me to pick up the Unix and Windows adminning stuff as I go along.)

Thing is, we have a very ... eclectic mix of systems that we work with. There's the Windows Server 2003 stuff which include a couple of file servers, the Active Directory servers, and the Exchange boxen - but there are also the Debian boxes, a mixture of Powermac G4 and G5s running MacOSX, Windows XP based Intel boxen, and servers running Solaris, a FreeBSD-based Exim mail server, OpenBSD, and Red Hat. We also have a single Windows NT4 box that talks to the phone system hardware.

We have three separate lans, one wireless, the other two wired. The bigger of the two wired lans runs Appletalk and TCP/IP, and provides access to the (non-internet facing) Exchange server, and Active Directory. Network authentication and access control for the Windows-based protocols is handled by Active Directory, as is the configuration of Exchange accounts. Login authentication on the PCs is done via Active Directory. The Unix sysadmin has plans afoot for a Mac OS X Server box running Open Directory, replicating the data on the Active Directory server - if it works, all authentication would be made against Active Directory, Open Directory and via Kerberos.

Given the heterogenous nature of the network, what would folks recommend I persue in terms of certification? I'm not overly keen on the Microsoft stuff as to be honest, I'd rather not get saddled with being "the Windows geek". Given the intended plans with regards to running a Mac OS X Server box, I'm thinking possibly ACSA.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

acsa, a+, network+? And whats wrong with being the windows geek?

[jecook]

the ACSA sounds like a good idea, along with the cross training from the unx guy and the windows guy.

[wyrdrune.livejournal.com]

Personally I'd go with the Cisco - it's probably one of the more marketable cirts... Although it should be pointed out that I intend to move to networks. :-)

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

Ditto, on both counts. :)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Yup. Be the Apple geek and the network geek. Learn enough Windows and Unix to make all three system types be able to talk to one another, but not so obviously much that you'll be given the other techs' workload.

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

1) do the Mac thing. There are very few GOOD Mac Supporters.
i hate macs but thas not the topic of this discussion :)

2) Linux and Windows is very usefull but i think you'll come along with Windows with "lerning by doing" and linux shouldnt be the big problem once you understood how it works :) Rest can be read everywhere.