windows Learning Windows Server

[Codebuilder]

To anyone who is a Windows Server Administrator.

I am curious on how did you learn to use Windows Server.

Did you buy your own server?
Did you learn it on the job?
Did you enroll in a course?

Let me know your thoughts.  I would like to learn how to administer using Windows Server and find a job in
the future but I'm hesitant to do so because of the cost and hardware resources needed are high.

[WisTex]

In my case, I was a partner on a website that was hosting on a Windows server, and since I was most familiar with Linux web hosting, I wound up being the system administrator for the website, even though I had never used Windows servers before.

Since I already knew most of the hosting-related concepts, it was really just a matter of figuring out how to do things on a new platform. So what I wound up doing is Googling a lot of things as needed. This meant I could do what I needed to do, but there were holes in my knowledge.

Later, I wound up being a technical writer for a web hosting company that offered both Linux and Windows hosting. I learned a lot there because I had to learn both systems and then write documentation on it. In that case, I had test accounts I could use to try things. In that case, I would try to do something, Google or ask how to do something from co-workers, then complete the steps myself taking screenshots, and then writing down the steps. 

So, in my case, most of my learning was a result of hands-on trying it out for myself, either experimenting or researching answers as I went along.

This gives me a functional knowledge of Windows servers that allows me to get things done, but the downside of this is that I wouldn't pass any certifications because of the holes in my knowledge.

Edited March 23, 2018 by WisTex