Recommendations for becoming a linux sysadmin?

[der.hans]

Am 05. Sep, 2008 schwätzte blake gonterman so:

moin moin Blake,

> I've finally figured out where I want to go with my career, but most of the
> jobs I've seen require quite a bit more knowledge than I can get just on my
> own. Most require experience gained at a job.

They require experience. Lots of ways to get that.

> So, my question to the mailing list is: What would you recommend I work on
> to become a Linux Sysadmin?
>
> I've been studying on my RHCT for about 2 months, working with the book,
> doing the labs and experimenting on my own. I've been purposely breaking my
> linux install on my laptop and then troubleshooting the errors and such to
> get a better understanding of how to fix various errors.

A good path. Troubleshooting is an important skill. Knowledge of how the
OS works is also important. The RHCT exams require a significant amound of
knowledge, so preparing for them should help.

Something else to do is to run your own services. Setup a mail, web and
dns servers and use them for your own domain. Make sure you have a good,
tested backup policy in place for your own boxen.

Help a non-profit or small business run on GNU/Linux boxen.

Learn how to program shell, perl, php or python. Don't need to be
excellent, but you should know at least one. Actually, you should know
shell and at least on of the others :).

Go to PLUG meetings and InstallFests and learn.

Join LOPSA-US-AZ and hang out in #LOPSA.

Go to ABLEconf in two weeks.

Give presentations at LUG meetings and conferences. You'll be amazed how
much you can learn when you prepare for a presentation. You don't need to
be an expert in order to give a presentation. It does help to learn how to
let those in the audience have the ability to add to and enhance your
presentations.

Most importantly: play. Do it because it's fun.

> I'm looking to get into a junior administration position, but those seem to
> be hard to come by.

That seems to always be the case. Been looking at Dice today and there are
lots of senior GNU/Linux gigs out there.

Look for places that have 24/7 support and see if you can get on the
overnight team.

> Any suggestions for me?

Lots :).

ciao,

der.hans
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