I had two physical machines and they each had 1 VM so I had 4 machines to play with. This was back in 2004 when 2GB of RAM was balling so that was the best I could do
I learned AD by studying for my 2003 MCSE. If you wanna learn go for the 2012 MCSE. Here's the link to the cert on Microsoft's site:
MCSE: Server Infrastructure | Microsoft
This is the AD shyt MS says you'll be able to do by the time you get the cert:
As your going through the book, have a VM up and just follow along. It literally walks you through everything and teaches you how it works and why. I can let you know right now you put that on a resume and you got 3-5 years experience and you probably gotta 80k/yr skillset. Get your CISSP and you're at 115k easy. Congrats, you're in the 6 figure 6 cert club
For Powershell I used this site:
Windows PowerShell Tutorial - Introduction Microsoft's new scripting language
I just went through it and taught myself. I'm pretty sure powershell is gonna be covered in the 2012 book, but I'd still recommend going through the tutorial on that link. The only way to learn it is to use it. so if I want to make a folder, I did it in powershell. If I wanted to create a user I did it powershell. If I wanted to know what time it was I did it in powershell. Fast forward 6 months and I'm writing 1400 line scripts for provisioning and deprovisioning users. I got so good that even though I was in security I had one of the managers over the developers stop by to offer me a job
And Ima keep it 100, if you know powershell you're gonna get a job. That shyt is in such high demand right now it's not even funny
Matter fact powershell was what got a nikka to 200k :brehwow2: