[ale] somewhat OT: sysadmin must-knows?

[Jerald Sheets]

I have recommended Aileen Frisch's book "Essential Systems
Administration" to every new admin I've ever known or trained, and bar
none...they've all come back to thank me later.

The single most important thing is to prototype, prototype, prototype.

Go down to your local PC barn and get a couple of capable machines, and
do absolutely *EVERYTHING* you could think about needing in te
enterprise in your own basement.

Make web servers, make FTP servers, make a full authentication framework
over LDAP.

Anything neat you read, try it yourself.

Get subscriptions to Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, and Sysadmin and the
student subscriptions to USENIX and SAGE.  Go to any shows you can, and
hang out with your closest LUG.

That's what I would recommend.

--Jerald


On Fri, 2004-11-12 at 00:13 -0500, jay wrote:
> For everyone who doesn't know me, name is Jay Loden, I'm a student and 
> assistant systems administrator at Elon University (NC), and I need your help 
> and advice.
> 
> I just kind of "fell into" my job with systems administration, much the way  I 
> got involved with Linux, and it turns out I like both.  I am graduating in 
> May and I want to work in systems administration (or indeed anything where I 
> can use Linux daily).  Here's the problem: I'm graduating with a degree in 
> Corporate Communications.
> 
> Basically, I need to teach myself every scrap of useful information I can cram 
> into my brain before May about being a sysadmin, because I'm sure haven't 
> gotten it from my classes!  What I'm looking for is helpful suggestions, i.e. 
> books I need to read, skills I need to have, experience that's critical, etc. 
> 
> I am working on honing my Python scripting skills (with the hope of being a 
> competent Python programmer by May), and I am rapidly learning as much as 
> possible about Linux in general, but I know that there are bound to be things 
> I'm neglecting or unaware of that are essential sysadmin know-how.  I would 
> love to hear from systems administrators out there on the list...how did you 
> get into your field?  What do you think I need to know? How can I learn it 
> best?  Is getting involved with OSS projects helpful (e.g. helping with a 
> distro)? What options are there for a guy with only a small amount of 
> "official" sysadmin experience who's willing to learn fast and hard? 
> 
> Thanks in advance and I apologize for the lengthy mail! 
> 
> -Jay
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