How To Gain An Unfair Advantage In Today’s IT Job Market
Gain hands-on experience at home!
Is your IT education missing real-world experience?
How much more confident would you feel in an interview or meeting knowing you have hands-on experience?
You're not alone. Many IT pros read and watch tutorials but miss out on the critical step of hands-on application. Here's a typical scenario:
- You find something interesting to learn. Maybe it's a new feature in an application you support or a new language to learn.
- You find several blog posts, YouTube videos, or a new book and dive in. After many hours, you have a basic understanding of what you set out to learn.
- You're ready to implement what you've learned, but things don't go as planned. You're greeted with error messages and unforeseen challenges that no tutorial prepared you for.
The gap between theory and practice is where many IT pros find themselves stranded, equipped with knowledge but lacking the practical skills to navigate real-world IT problems.
This is where a sandbox environment becomes invaluable. It provides a safe, isolated testing environment that simulates real-world IT infrastructure, allowing IT professionals to experiment with new software, languages, or system configurations without the risk of affecting actual operations.
Here's how having a sandbox can transform your learning experience and build confidence:
- Experiment Without Fear: Mistakes are not just allowed; they're expected. Mistakes are crucial for learning.
- Encountering and Resolving Real Errors: One of the biggest gaps in learning from tutorials and books is the 'ideal environment' they often assume. In the real world, you encounter unexpected errors and issues. A sandbox mimics these conditions, presenting you with real challenges. When you encounter an error, you have to troubleshoot and solve it yourself. Vital skills in IT.
- Applying Theory to Practice: It's one thing to understand a concept theoretically, but applying it is a different game. A sandbox allows you to put theory into practice. Implementing what you've learned in a controlled environment reinforces your knowledge and boosts your confidence.
- Building Muscle Memory: Repeated practice in a sandbox environment helps in developing muscle memory for various IT tasks and problem-solving. This kind of hands-on experience is invaluable and can't be gained through reading or watching videos alone.
- Gaining Confidence Through Mastery: Each time you successfully implement a concept or fix an issue, your confidence grows. This confidence is not just theoretical; it's backed by practical, hands-on experience. When you walk into an interview or meeting, you're not just talking about what you've learned - you're discussing what you've actually done.
Gone are the days of monotonous, time-consuming setup processes. In this course, Automated Sandbox Fundamentals: How to Build a Virtual Lab For Less Than $300, you'll discover how to smartly automate the building of your virtual lab, freeing up precious hours that you can instead dedicate to hands-on learning and innovation.
Here's a glimpse into the typical time-consuming process:
- Operating System installation: 30 - 45 minutes per machine
- Installing the latest OS updates: 1 hour per machine
- Virtual Machine configuration: 1-2 hours per machine
- Additional software installation: 1 hour per machine
You're potentially investing up to 12 hours for just three virtual machines. Need a fourth? Tack on another 3-4 hours. Imagine reducing all that to under 15 minutes (perhaps less, depending on your PC).
By using automation, you can quickly build and rebuild customized sandboxes as your objectives change. Here are a few examples of what you can discover in a sandbox:
- Active Directory - Learn how to build and manage a Windows Active Directory, Domain Controller, and DNS.
- Database Administration / Development - Postgresql, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL
- Development - Applications, websites. Multiple languages (C#, Python, etc)
- High Availability - Clustering (Windows or Linux), Backup and Recovery
- Platform Engineering / Infrastructure as Code Concepts
- Configuration Management
- Server Administration - Windows or Linux
- Containerization - Kubernetes, Podman
- Data Analysis
- Cybersecurity
- Virtualization
This is more than just a learning experience; it’s an investment in your IT career.
What our customers say:
"As an IT professional in the DevOps field, I understand the importance of hands-on practice when mastering new technologies. My experience resonates with many of us who seek efficient ways to learn and experiment. Thanks to my co-workers’ recommendation, I found out AutomateSQL.com is a really valuable resource. It’s fantastic that it aligns perfectly with my needs. Luke’s course, which simplifies the process of setting up your own test lab, is undoubtedly a game-changer. Having a dedicated environment for experimentation will accelerate my learning journey significantly. Moreover, the responsiveness and clarity of Luke’s support are commendable. When I encountered some issues during lab setup, his timely and precise instructions made all the difference. It’s heartening to see educators who genuinely care about their students’ success. Now that I have my own test lab, the possibilities are endless. Dive into automation testing, explore different tools, and continue my growth."
Bill Liu
Database Engineer
Here's what you'll learn:
1. Introduction
We start with the end goal in mind and I quickly show you what we're building. Next, you'll learn how to navigate the course.
2. Choosing The Right Hardware and Host Operating System
We'll cover what you need to start. You'll need a PC that can run VMware Workstation Pro (free for personal use).
3. Configuring The Host Machine
You'll configure your host machine to ensure it's running optimally.
4. Guest Operating System ISOs
This course uses Windows Server 2022 evaluation edition and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In this module, we'll setup a Red Hat Enterprise developer subscription and download the operating system ISOs.
5. Hashicorp Packer: Building Your First Golden Images
If you're unfamiliar with golden images, think of them as templates you can use to avoid repeating the initial installation and configuration of the operating system. By using these images, your sandbox builds will go from hours to minutes, so you can focus on your learning goals instead of wasting time on repetitive tasks.
6. Hashicorp Vagrant: Creating and Managing Your Sandbox
Think of Vagrant as your sandbox management engine. This tool lets you start your virtual machines, shut them down, build additional ones (using the images created in step 5), and take snapshots (your redo button). We'll cover multiple vagrant commands over the 12 lessons in this module.
7. Installing Ansible
We'll review key concepts and install Ansible in this module. This configuration management tool can be used for all sorts of magic. This is just an introduction to what Ansible is capable of. If you're looking to build an environment to test your Infrastructure as Code abilities, you'll have one of the best tools already installed.
8. Building A Windows Domain Controller
Lastly, you'll use Ansible to build a Windows domain controller. Having a domain is critical to duplicating a real-world experience for an organization, especially if your focus is interoperability between machines.
Course Requirements:
Before you click that "ENROLL NOW" button, make sure you have a PC that meets the following requirements:
-
You have basic command-line skills (Linux, Windows, or macOS).
- Windows PC that meets the minimum requirements of VMWare Workstation Pro.
- At least 8 GB of RAM. 16 GB is better.
- Intel or AMD x64 bit processor - Launched in 2011 or later. Sorry, Macs using the new ARM processors won't work for this course.
- At least 256 GB of free hard disk space
- We use VMware Workstation Pro throughout the course. It's now free for personal use.
Here's how to get started today:
- Choose your access level and click the "ENROLL NOW" button.
- This will open the checkout page in a pop-up window.
- Enter your email and credit card details and press "Complete my purchase."
- Confirm your purchase.
- You'll immediately get an email and be taken to a signup page to complete your account.
- Log in and get started.
It's completely risk-free.
I’ve packed a lot into this course because I want you to have access to the same method I've used for 20+ years when learning new concepts.
And to make it a no-brainer deal for you, I’m giving you a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee with your purchase today.
That’s right: Go through the course, follow the steps, put in the work, and if you don’t love it in the first 14 days of your purchase, send me an email, and I’ll refund you immediately. No questions asked, no hard feelings.
If Automated Sandbox Fundamentals: How to build a virtual lab for less than $300 doesn’t work for you, I’d much prefer for you to take your money and invest it where you will be happier and get results.
