[lug] System Administration - First Dive?

[Dan Ferris]

I would humbly suggest that you look into buying a Linux VPS or Amazon
EC2 instance in addition to setting up a home server.  For starters it
will allow you to learn a little about VPNs and routing.  Plus it's
easier to run public servers on a VPS or EC2 instance than it is on your
home DSL/Cable line.

I use www.arpnetworks.com for mine.  It's like $40 a month and it's
money well spent.

On 04/19/2011 10:01 PM, Walter Pienciak wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 07:12:50PM -0600, Erik Lenderman wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am primarily familiar with the basic GUI of Linux home OS's, but I am
>> interested in exploring a career in system administration and beyond.  I
>> would like to learn how one could best acquire the knowledge and skills
>> necessary for developing a Unix/Linux expertise.
>>
>> Would you recommend that I register for 5-day Linux System Administration
>> crash-courses, or would a direct move into entry-level help desk be most
>> effective?
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Erik
> Lots of experience on this list; no doubt for each 5 people, you
> could collect 7-8 opinions on the best way to proceed.
>
> I personally prefer the "set up a Linux box and dive in"
> approach.   Pick a distro, install it, buy the Nemeth/Snyder/Hein
> "Linux Administration Handbook," and start puttering.  Set up a
> web server on it, set up printing, add users, whatever floats
> your boat.  Find and learn to read the system documentation.  (At
> a command prompt, type "man man".)
>
> You will quickly surpass anything you might learn in a 5-day
> class. 
>
> If you want to be a sysadmin (or beyond), you need become
> familiar with and to learn the core system, which has little to
> do with GUIs.  My opinion is that using a GUI will cripple you in
> that endeavor; many GUIs are abstractions that insulate you
> from the system and expose only a subset of what is actually
> there to diddle.  And when a system is having problems, you
> may find yourself with nothing but a console or SSH login and
> your wits anyway.
>
> Learn to use a text editor that is always bundled into systems.
> I use vim/vi; emacs is mostly ubiquitous (how is something mostly
> ubiquitous?); pico is an entry-level tool that can get you going
> with a short learning curve.  
>
> Find out where all the logs on your system are and check them
> out.  Find out how to find the logs ("man find").
>
> The bottom line is, you get a Linux box and start dinking with
> it.  Some things will be interesting to you; you will learn in
> that area.  Some things won't be interesting and you won't see
> an immediate need; maybe later.  Some things will be puzzling,
> and you'll ask questions.  It's mostly a matter of getting
> started and finding out if you have the aptitude and interest to
> do this for a career.
>
> FWIW, here's a quote from a recent job posting of mine:
> "Command-line administration and scripting skills are required."
> Bourne shell scripting is worth learning; as is Perl.  If you
> learn to automate yourself out of the mundane, you may be
> happier, and you will have the time to pursue more interesting
> work.  Admins who can't script or program and who are trapped in
> a GUI wind up being -- well, in the days of tape, we called them
> tape monkeys.
>
> No doubt one of my friends will be along shortly to explain
> carefully how wrong I am (especially regarding vi).   ;^)
>
> My $0.02, maybe $0.03,
> Walter
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