What an excellent idea. I wish this was around when I was learning on Red Hat 5.1.
I may still check this out though. I still have lots to learn.
Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
21–30 of 34 posts
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#22I really like the concept, but...
- big no-no - which flavor you will be using? RHEL? Ubuntu? FreeBSD? Let's say I sign-up and it turns around that there will be RHEL tooling. Well - money wasted if I standardize on Ubuntu.
>> use grep, ssh, apt-get, tail and man to administer, monitor and extend your server.
- lack of proper course description - the above is not enough. How about setting properly iptables and kernel config (to ensure network security)? how about properly hardening web server? Install from ports won't cut it. How about proper partinioning to ensure no executable bits? etc etc etc
- who are you and how I can be sure that what you teach is best practices and not some oldish shmaboodle fairy tales?
Would the above be addressed positively - I would pay more... and more... and more...
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#23Sysadmin skills isn't about using tools, it is about understanding how they work and why it is so.
Sysadmin's understanding isn't about memorizing apt-get or yum install, is mostly about ./configure --help ,)
After you will be able to build from the sources full LAMP stack, understand dependencies and cross-references, realizing the amount of crap^Wcode apache+php uses - this will be something to start with (integrating Informix or Oracle support is a bonus,)
The next step is to understand and internalize what is the difference between mod_php and fastcgi configurations - why they are different, how to enable caching, how it works, what are persistent connections to DB, etc.
The next level - be able to visualize in your mind the flows of data, and follow requests through all the layers - OS, http-server, fast-cgi transport, scripting engine, database-connection, table storage (realization that MyISAM engine or MongoDB are using table-level locking is a sign that you're on the right way).
Then, you must be able to separate the flows, partition the data, at least understand that /var/log and /var/db/mysql on the same disk slice is a sign of stupidity.
Then comes access patterns - how often the data are accessed, when changes occur, how often they are synced, etc (here comes caching and replications, then sharding).
This ability, to understand, trace and see patterns makes one sysadmin.
After that you might say that you kind of sysadmin.) Learning ssh is nothing. Googling is enough.
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#24I really like the idea. I think receiving a curated list of links[1] to web resources (docs, tutorials and howtos) would be sufficient to learn common sysadmin tasks.
The initial learning curve might be hard for some people though. What is bash? What are commands? How do you cd,mv,cp etc. What is /? What is /etc? etc...
Be sure to let us know how it goes.
____________
[1]: My collection of links for common UNIX commands: http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/anatomy/doku.php?do=index&idx...
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#25Sysadmin skills isn't about using tools, it is about understanding how they work and why it is so. Sysadmin's understanding isn't about memorizing apt-get or yum install, is mostly about ./configure --help ,) After you will be able to build from the sources full LAMP stack, understand dependencies and cross-references, realizing the amount of crap^Wcode apache+php uses - this will be something to start with (integrat…
Thank you for your valuable input! /s
For a Windows server admin like myself, this course sounds ideal, the things you mention are important no doubt but how important are they for a person just starting out?
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#26That font needs to be bigger and red is too low contrast on white background - at least after sitting in front of a monitor for 12 hours.
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#27Sysadmin skills isn't about using tools, it is about understanding how they work and why it is so. Sysadmin's understanding isn't about memorizing apt-get or yum install, is mostly about ./configure --help ,) After you will be able to build from the sources full LAMP stack, understand dependencies and cross-references, realizing the amount of crap^Wcode apache+php uses - this will be something to start with (integrat…
Thank you for your valuable input! /s For a Windows server admin like myself, this course sounds ideal, the things you mention are important no doubt but how important are they for a person just starting out?
I agree with this statement, you have to start somewhere and many a Windows admin don't use command-line now. So essentially a beginner's course in command-line tools, i.e. beginning system administration, not only is good for Linux but can strengthen a Windows admin by helping them not be afraid of cmd.exe.
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for your valuable input! /s For a Windows server admin like myself, this course sounds ideal, the things you mention are important no doubt but how important are they for a person just starting out?
I agree with this statement, you have to start somewhere and many a Windows admin don't use command-line now. So essentially a beginner's course in command-line tools, i.e. beginning system administration, not only is good for Linux but can strengthen a Windows admin by helping them not be afraid of cmd.exe.
The course description sounds essentially the same as just following HOWTOs (which is how I taught myself the basic tools involved in sysadmin-ing many years ago). Just follow these old tutorials and save $20.
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with this statement, you have to start somewhere and many a Windows admin don't use command-line now. So essentially a beginner's course in command-line tools, i.e. beginning system administration, not only is good for Linux but can strengthen a Windows admin by helping them not be afraid of cmd.exe.
The course description sounds essentially the same as just following HOWTOs (which is how I taught myself the basic tools involved in sysadmin-ing many years ago). Just follow these old tutorials and save $20. http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/categories.html
It does but many people lack the confidence to undertake something like learning a daunting new task on their own, having a class with a guiding direction from people smarter than you is always a good thing.
Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin skills for anyone - a new online course
#30The site has now switched to taking registrations of interest for our upcoming courses in the new year - please sign up to that if you're interested at all in this approach.
Like a lot of startups have found, it's hard to know exactly what you've got until it's already underway - and your input will drive the direction this goes.
To answer a couple of points that have come up: (a) Participants on this first course will be using Ubuntu Server LTS, but the course material is based around them having _two_ servers one Debian-flavoured, one RHEL-flavoured. At this level its more about getting them familiar with Linux as a whole, assuming that they may need to support multiple versions. (b) In my day job I act as sysadmin for 20-odd production systems, ranging from PC104 systems running Slackware, to RHEL 6 systems, (c) I've run many technical training courses in the past.