How do I learn to be a Linux sysadmin? on Reddit
I recently stumbled upon great resource on on /r/linuxadmin/ and I believe it is worth spreading. Do not expect detailed tutorials chock full of screenshots – /u/IConrad gives you list of tasks which build upon each other. It will be long journey, as it’s estimated whole task list would take 3-6 of full time study.
If you want to embark on this journey here’s the short excerpt from the quide:
This is what I tell people to do, who ask me “how do I learn to be a Linux sysadmin?”.
1) Set up a KVM hypervisor.
2) Inside of that KVM hypervisor, install a Spacewalk server. Use CentOS 6 as the distro for all work below. (For bonus points, set up errata importation on the CentOS channels, so you can properly see security update advisory information.)
3) Create a VM to provide named and dhcpd service to your entire environment. Set up the dhcp daemon to use the Spacewalk server as the pxeboot machine (thus allowing you to use Cobbler to do unattended OS installs). Make sure that every forward zone you create has a reverse zone associated with it. Use something like “internal.virtnet” (but not “.local”) as your internal DNS zone.
4) Use that Spacewalk server to automatically (without touching it) install a new pair of OS instances, with which you will then create a Master/Master pair of LDAP servers. Make sure they register with the Spacewalk server. Do not allow anonymous bind, do not use unencrypted LDAP.
It gives nice sense of progression, and to quote the author:
“Each “step” had a reason for being suggested; and the reason for the entire collection of steps was to represent a first-time exposure to conceptual categories of things that the daily work of the Linux/UNIX sysadmin might entail. Amongst other things you pick up knowledge of:
- Managing virtualized OS instances
- Server provisioning / automation
- Server configuration management
- Patch management in clustered environments
- Load balancers
- Network architecture
- User management
- HA Architecture
- Web-app stack architecture
- Researching and implementing solutions on the basis of partial specifications.
- Etc..”
Enjoy!