Best Training in Linux Administration? 467
Love to Learn Linux asks: "My company is making the move to Linux. I've been a Windows admin the last 5 years and have been asked to learn Linux. I've got some O'Reilly books but I need some hands on experience. My company will pay for any Linux training I choose. I'd prefer an online course to one of those 4 day classroom courses since I'd like to take my time and really learn it.
So far, I've been recommended the Red Hat eLearning course and the O'Reilly Learning Lab. Would you recommend either of these over the other, or are there some better choices?"
Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Use it at home (Score:2, Informative)
Was that wise? I doubt it, but I'm nothing if not stubborn.
Start with a hard distro... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before I'm modded flamebait, here's why:
1)Gentoo has some of the best install documents in the Linux community
2)It requires that you set up a lot of things by hand (system logger, kernel if you choose expert, etc)
3)It has some of the best forums/support around. Even Gentoo critics admit this.
After you get gentoo working on your box, wipe it and reinstall. After the fourth or fifth time, you'll actually have learned something. Then wipe and install Debian:
1) Debian has the largest volunteer following.
2) Deb has one of the simplest updgrade paths
3) If you choose stable, its old but very secure.
4)Suse is pretty darned awesome, too.
5)Then make a customized patched kernel for the heck of it.
Just my two cents. I took the Gentoo->Debian Road for the simple reason of learning and it helped.
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Informative)
I started with Slackware back in the mid-'90s. I'd have to agree that it was a hard distribution to work with. At least back then, anyway. (Getting X set up took several evenings and a few scary sessions where you never knew whether your monitor would survive.) Since those days of yore, some friends have switched to Slackware from other distributions and they find it fairly simple. Of course they're not newbies tackling it any more, so...
Getting back to the original question: I'd suggest, if his employer can see that he's covered for the week and not getting yanked out of class to respond to a pager, that the fellow take the week-long class. Immerse yourself in it. Back when I was beginning to get into UNIX, I found that what worked best for me was to convert my system to run nothing else. It was DOS, Windows, VMS, and a bunch of other OSes at work but at home it was all UNIX all the time. (Technically it was Coherent but you get the idea.)
If he can swing it, I suggest getting a hold of a system that he can dedicate to use with his distribution of choice. Highly recommended. You wouldn't want to be screwing around and experimenting with dual booting the home Windows box and risking the wife's Christmas card list and the kids' term papers. (Not if you want to stay off their sh*t list, that is.) That way you can mess that system up, troubleshoot it, and fix it.
If you're not interested in fixing fouled up systems right off the bat, try doing some projects. I found several semi-work-related projects where I do some of the work at home on the new system. For example, we had some old FORTRAN code that some coworkers wanted converted to C. Heck, writing web pages for the intranet at work could be done at home on the Linux system. You'll learn one or more text editors along the way and most likely pick up some basic administrative skills at the same time. Anyway, I found it helped to have some goal when learning the new OS rather than just flipping around and trying things out randomly. Of course, YMMV.
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
And this will teach more than any college course or class in existence.
This is much how I learned, right from the beginning, e.g., "we don't know how this here mainframe actually works. Figure it out. If you can't, we'll fire you and hire someone else to give it a shot."
This should be a degree requirement for everyone in CS. It would do a lot to weed out the often-useless trash passing themselves off as CS majors these days.
Max
Pick the hardest Distro (Score:5, Informative)
It's no different than mastering the DOS 3.3 command set and scripting; just [infinitely?] more commands scripting, languages and widgets at your disposal.
Re:Pick the hardest Distro (Score:5, Insightful)
Course for a production (public) server it's all about the FreeBSD in my book
One final note. Once you've done your install and get ready to start installing your mission critical apps (Apache, Postfix or whatever) don't use emerge or RPM or Yast etc... grab the source tarball and follow the README/INSTALL directions. It's often a little harder but gives you more control and you learn more about both the app and your OS in the process.
Good Luck!
Re:Pick the hardest Distro (Score:5, Insightful)
It takes a long time to get an LFS distro up and running, but by the time you do, you will know your system inside and out even before you've started experimenting with different configurations.
Re:Pick the hardest Distro (Score:5, Informative)
But hey, don't think that I'm knocking off LFS. I went through it myself... but after a year plus of using Slackware (following a year of using Mandrake consistently).
LFS is really useful if you want to understand how to build a Linux distro. It's technically not even a distro. It's more of a commando-style survival training, whereas a distro would be summer camp.
I also doubt the "you will know your system inside and out" argument. I believe "you will know how to build a working Linux system" is a better description of the LFS learning process.
Bear in mind that the poster is a Windows admin for five years... and he wants to have working knowledge of adminning Linux... not building a distro. Moving from Windows, and getting an introduction to Linux via LFS is really not something you'd want to go through.
My recommendation? I live and breathe Slackware... but the poster should really try out a few distros. Fedora Core & Mandrake would scratch that need-some-GUIs-to-get-me-going itch for a start. After that, you might want to try some of the more traditional distros... Slackware and Debian would be my recommendation then.
In the end, Linux is about choice. Just sometimes, the choice isn't yours... just your company's. Take a course on whatever distro they've decided upon... but play with a different distro at home for a different "feel".
Pick an old book (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Building "scale" networks is great (Score:5, Interesting)
You can use local sources to buy outdated computers, used switches, hubs, routers and etc to build a "dumbed down" low cost clone of your current network which will allow you to learn using it just like the real network, heck even the same IPs if you're going to put that much effort in. You can practice deploying software, using the systems etc. You might also want to get exact (sans-serial-numbers) clones of key servers if possible so you can test things very carefully.
It's a great way to learn but it'll really help to have a guru to get you going.
Find the local Linux User Group and get involved, make friends and then pester them on IM.
Re:Use it at home (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's not. When you just install a distro at home and start using it you'll learn a lot, sure. But what you'll learn a scattershot and mostly just what you need to do to get a functional system, because that's what your incentive is to do. You won't learn best practices and you won't learn why things are they way they are. Heck you probably won't even learn about some fairly basic tools just because you didn't happen to need them. You really need the formality of a structured learning environment (not a class, specifically, but a structured curriculum at least) to make sure you cover everything you need to know.
I know it seems to be the number one recommended method here on Slashdot, but it really has some serious flaws that everyone seems to conveniently overlook. Following your advice leads to sloppiness and "good enough"-ness. Not exactly skills that will endear you to an employer.
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget about the time investment (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, everyone I know who is best at Linux is self-taught. But how much time did that take? Valuable lessons can be learned alone, but you can reduce the time it takes by a factor of 10 or more with structured lessons.
I'm talking years here. You can reduce 10 years of lonerdom to 1 year by using structured learning tools. No class is going to teach you to be a guru in 4 days.
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:5, Interesting)
teaches you how to think the way the teacher thinks. I have seen countless
IT people with formal skills approach a problem the exact same way, go through
everything they can remember, once they have gone down the list, they are
stumped. I would much rather be in charge of the training of my brain, esp,
since you can study what you want, it's always "play" and never "work". My
self-teaching has been of tourrmendous advantage, since I, having not
undergone the grinding down of formal education in computers, have developed
novel and unique ways of looking and solving of provblems.
SealBeater
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:5, Insightful)
I firmly believe that to be a good sysadmin, programmer, technologist, etc, you have to be able to learn on your own.. that is the primary skill you need... and this is why almost every single skilled person you meet in this field will tell you they really learned it all on their own.
School, however, is a source of knowledge.. and not every course is there to teach you a bunch of narrow-minded BS.
If you really want to bean up on a specific area, for instance, you are getting more into Linux, taking a couple courses your employer is willing to pay for is certainly not a BAD thing to take advantage of... especially if you feel you will learn something out of it. Especially if you are a learning on your own kind of guy.. you will absorb a lot from the course. Make sure the instructor is someone who can actually add knowledge to you.. the entire course could be worth it if a handful of your unanswered questions are answered.
I think most of us just suggest "do it on your own, courses are silly" because we want people to realize that learning on your own is the most important skill.. that courses are just a brief foray into some new knowledge.
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:3)
I'd like to add that an important aspect of teaching yourself is that you learn how to learn.
It's much more valuable to know that you can type "man grep" than to memorize that "-i" means case-insensitive.
One thing is for sure: nothing can replace self-teaching. You will be a much more valuable resource to your company because of it.
However, the orginal poster's company needs him now. I think he should install linux everywhere he can and start taking classes. Then, I'd just pick the instructor'
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:4, Insightful)
That's rather amusing, given how useless a college degree is in most professions - CS included. Structured learning often does very little to teach CS students anything of actual, real-world value.
I'd argue for self-learning (the way most of us have done it, I'd imagine), with liberal doses of research on the internet and question/answer sessions on the newsgroups. There are a lot of people out there who'll lend you a helping hand if you ask for it.
Some - a very few - current administrators and programmers are also good at apprenticeship situations. Many aren't; not because they lack some indefinable skill, but because they're too busy with other things to be bothered with training up a newbie.
I'd say take a class as a very last resort. Avoid a college course as if your professional life depended on it.
Max
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:3, Interesting)
I would agree about CS but I am curious about your list of "good" and "bad" majors. Of course, I do not agree with respect on Mathematics; I think Don Knuth would agree that a Math degree is worthwhile. I cannot imagine learning "real" physics (as compared with "popular" physics) without studying it at a university. Also biology (e.g. sequencing), chemistry (e.g. good lab technique, P-chem.), some (but not
Re:Don't forget about the time investment (Score:3, Interesting)
Mathematics is a degree I did not consider, and a rather good example of a degree that might actually be useful right from the point of graduation. But then I did say "most" and not "all".
I've had the rare opportunity to study a variety of recen
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly, you hear that a lot here about "paper MCSEs". Yet that's just the converse of the typical proposal here: "You don't need a class, you can learn it all by running Slack on your old 486." Yet somehow one is sage advice and the other is mocked. You can't learn without doing, but you can't learn in a vacuum either. Neglecting either one will lead to sometimes critical (from a business standpoint) holes in your knowledge.
Just like you shouldn't take a class and think you know everything before you have real experience, you shouldn't think you've seen it all already "in the wild" and structured learning is beneath you. It's the same personality flaw. It's just manifesting itself in a different way.
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who learnt Linux at home, then took some classes, then became an instructor, I think most people who learn from home's knowledge holes are gaping.
Basic stuff like quotas. How the kernel knows where the root partition is. What the difference between the exire time in an SOA record and the TTL in the zone file is.
Most self-taught Linux users are no worse than the self-taught NT admin who has no idea what a port is.
Re:Use it at home (Score:4, Informative)
Learned everything I needed to know in an hour from the man pages the first time I needed to set them for users.
How the kernel knows where the root partition is.
Learned this the first time I had a disk array fail and had to restore from backup. I don't remember where I found it, probably in the LILO documentation somewhere.
What the difference between the exire time in an SOA record and the TTL in the zone file is.
Haven't set up a fresh DNS server since I switched to djbdns a few years ago, so I didn't remember this one. Ten seconds of googling refreshed my memory.
I guess my point in all of this is that it doesn't matter if you have holes in your knowledge. Instead, it is important to know that you do have them, and to know where to find the information you need. And, for what it's worth, I'm mostly self-taught, but I've taken some classes. Both are valuable.
Re:Use it at home (Score:4, Insightful)
~Will
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Only after I attended a 3 night a week month long class did it all come together.
Don't disregard the classroom setting. A online course or reading o'reilly books (and even the Linux for Dummy's book) are good but for your first introduction a classroom (with hands on training) is the best place to start. If you have a good instructor you won't just learn "the Facts" but will get a better grasp of the implications and how to use the tools, and get some real practical advice.
Your milage may vary as some people are much better book learners while others do better with lecture, but a good class does a really good job of giving a good foundation to start from so additional online or deadtree training is more approachable and rewarding.
Re:Use it at home (Score:3, Interesting)
Only after I attended a 3 night a week month long class did it all come together.
Well, as "an actively employed "Linux Systems Administrator" (my real job title)" I can say that I followed a dif
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on the employer. For many, "good enough" is... good enough. After all, it's why one former employer of mine is (by now) switching to Exchange and IIS on Windows, instead of Postfix and Apache on Linux: they're "good enough" and have the advantage of being from the same software vendor and consultants they (now) buy everything else from. And (setting aside my perfectionist tendencies and principle for a moment) for some businesses, anything better than "good enough" is a luxury... one they can't afford.
Re:Use it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
And, of course, while they're grunting, they all recall that the reason that Tidwell isn't around to fix the problem is that his boss got sick and tired of his not documenting his procedures. :-) As much as everyone bitches and complains about it, documentation is important; especially for th
Re:Use it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Use it at home (Score:3, Interesting)
It's been almost spooky at times how often something has come up in my professional life which I'd just b
Do both (Score:4, Insightful)
But *in addition* set up a small network at home. Set it up as a mini-professional network, not a slapdash home network. You never learn like you do when you're doing, too.
But managers like Certifications, so I wouldn't suggest shorting out the course. Besides, some problems are related to scale, and you won't touch that on most home LANs. Book learning and practical learning can work together.
I'll second what someone said about Gentoo. While you want to deploy what your company uses, it wouldn't hurt to install a Gentoo box. Gentoo has very little handholding, and the install teaches you more than other installs. I wouldn't make Gentoo your first install, or even a particularly early one, though.
Real life (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Real life (Score:5, Funny)
Still waiting for it to finish compiling, eh?
Re:Real life (Score:2)
Re:Real life (Score:5, Insightful)
Set up the networking, play with apache, PHP, postfix, Openldap. Create and delete useracounts, explore
Instead of going on a class, get him to buy good books. I like wrox and Oreily books but others may be good also.
Learn to use man, the sysadmin's bestfriend.
Learn vi. Vi may be hard at first but it is very useful. the linux version is generaly vim. You may also use gvim but it's better to kick yourself in the ass and learn it if you are to become a Unix sysadmin.
Also, a good source of info is generally included in
Finally, http://www.google.com/linux [google.com], I could not live without.
I do not know many sysadmins that understood Linux and wanted to go back to windows.
Have fun!
Re:Real life (Score:3, Insightful)
I've used about every editor out there at one time or another (including teco), used emacs for a while, but "vi" (or vim) is my first choice. Heck, for a long time I used "ed", and still do occasionally.
Mostly it's a matter of guaranteed availability. Every Unix or Linux system will have
Gentoo not relevant to sys admin (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Real life (Score:4, Informative)
Set up a home system first (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing beats hands on, and nobody I've interviewed for a sysadmin job (and I've done quite a few recently) who didn't have a setup at home was any good.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:5, Informative)
I totally second this.
I'll add that I think that the best distro to learn the guts of Linux on is Gentoo. Go the full compile-it-yourself route. There are easy to follow, step by step instructions, and they take the time to tell you why you're doing everything. By the time you have it installed (and it will take a while), you'll be a virtual expert on Linux.
Of course, you shouldn't limit yourself to just one distro, and Gentoo probably isn't the easiest to manage. I like Debian stable for server things because it is so easy to keep up to date.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Interesting)
While I agree in principle that Gentoo is one of the best methods for learning how to get into the nooks and crannies of Linux, you aren't going to learn major "oh shit" tasks. I learned best by making massive mistakes
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Informative)
And for the love of Pete, If you compile a new kernel, DONT OVERWRITE THE OLD KERNEL!!!!!
Set up a new menu entry, so you can always failsafe back into the old kernel. I don't know how many times I've seen this done.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:5, Insightful)
In taking a class, the instructor tells you directly how to do something. You may or may not retain the information long enough to reuse it the next time you have to, say, install qmail.
However, doing it yourself at home will teach you that all-imporant skill of how to google for linux howto information on the web.
I've done a couple of qmail installs in my lifetime, but any knowledge I've gained has long been forgotten. Except for the fact that I know that qmailrocks.org [qmailrocks.org] is the place I go to re-learn what to do.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Insightful)
Knowing how to find how to do things is the useful talent.
Knowing how to find how to do things without an Internet access is an even more useful talent. It takes longer to aquire it though. And often several catastrophes.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only that, but get a few PCs, some switches (don't have to be good ones) and some wifi gear, a couple of windows clients at the very least if not some macs and stuff, and figure out ways to get maximum connectivity between all of them. A bunch of 486s will probably work for most of your linux systems, especially if you're willing to work with older versions of Linux for most of your clients.
Set up ALL the major software packages in every category you can come up with. Learn to configure both primary
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Informative)
Now, start playing. Basic install on your server, play with the interface for a bit. Get out the "Linux Network Administrator's Guide" and read it cover to cover. Read the Samba documentation in e
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:2, Funny)
"Nothing beats hands on, and nobody I've interviewed for a sysadmin job (and I've done quite a few recently) who didn't have a setup at home was any good"
I second that. It frustrates the hell out of your family though.
"Is the network broken? Again?"
"Err, yeah, I'm just working on something, sorry!, I'll have it back soon, I promise!"
"grrrr"
:-)
It's funny though, a lot of MS "sysadmins" have networks at home yet it doesn't seem to do any good for their skill levels, most of the time anyway.
Re:Set up a home system first (Score:3, Informative)
Firewalling is probably harder than a web server (especially if you use thttpd).
I disagree with the other comments about Gentoo--I'd say Slackware or Crux is a better compromise between getting you to actually start using your system quickly and forcing you to learn how to use it.
Linux from Scratch is probably the best, closest equivalent to an online 'course.' It's much more engaging than a Gentoo in
TrainingCamp for LPIC (Score:5, Informative)
Go RedHat (Score:5, Informative)
This will be more of benefit to you if you actually are going to use RedHat, but of course the general principles will apply.
If I were you, I'd also get Linux on a home machine and start "fiddling" to get up to speed.
Maybe install Vmware or a similar product so you can try different things.
Personally I took a leap and went from Windows to Gentoo [gentoo.org] linux and never looked back!
Good luck with it.
You could dual-boot an existing Windows machine or run VMWARE so you c
Re:Go RedHat (Score:2)
Re:Go RedHat (Score:3, Interesting)
The Red Hat training is for those who are already Linux admins. You need to have a lot of background as an administrator already. I found it quite useful...but didn't pass...so this may be biased, however...
Much of the Red Hat training centers around features that one won't normally encounter, and assumes that you already know how to do all the common stuff. Also, the Red Hat training assumes(-ed) that you are doing most-to-all of your work with the command line too
Online courses... (Score:5, Informative)
Stick w/the books (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as online course, I haven't found any worth a sh*t.
Re:Stick w/the books (Score:3, Informative)
A good friend (Score:5, Informative)
There's nothing that even comes close to having a hardcore hacker as a good friend. Information is quickest gained through other people's personal experience.
I've done it all. I've read a whole series of O'Reilly books (don't even bother with any other publisher) on various Linux and Network related subjects--I've read at least 25 of them cover-to-cover in the last 4 years. I have a whole bookshelf lined with them.
Then I subscribed to O'Reilly's Safari online [ora.com] program, and will never again be without it. I'll never have to buy another tech book again. If you can tolerate reading books online, getting a subscription is an ABSOLUTE must. And if you buy (or would like to buy) an average of more then two or three books a year, this will save you loads of cash. You can read up to about 60 books a year for $10/mo.
However, when you need to come up to speed as quick as possible, by far and away the best resource is a friend who knows it all. Install Linux on all your computers, and play with every piece of software you may be even slightly interested. Read all the books, read all the man pages. Write a few scripts in Bash, Perl, Sed, Awk, and anything else you hear about. And when you get stuck (and believe me, you will), call up that friend or drop by his desk. You'll be an expert faster than you can immagine.
It's the little things, you know, that make you an expert. Anybody can copy files to another computer, but if you can come up with something like
off the top of your head, then people will start feeling the respect.Re:A good friend (Score:3, Informative)
Q:How is
tar cf - dir{1,2} | (ssh host2 'cd destdir; tar xpf -')
better than
scp -p dir{1,2} host2:destdir
A:tar preserves more about the files than scp, for example, scp follows symbolic links, tar copies the links themselves. Also, the method I proposed allows more versatility, such as:
just a thought (Score:3, Insightful)
Just a thought.
Are You Crazy!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
These days it is difficult enough to get training (at least in the corp America I work in) let alone offsite. A whole week to do nothing but dig in and learn. Take it... then on your own you can always do self paced work and such... it's a win-win.
Good Luck!
Re:Are You Crazy!?! (Score:4, Funny)
No, seriously. If the class starts on a Monday, fly out Friday and stay with a friend for 2 nights. You'll actually save the company money on airfare by staying over a Saturday night.
Just a thought (Score:4, Insightful)
Ummm, where do you work? (Score:2, Insightful)
If I even mention "training" where I work the laughs can be heard clearly from the other side of the planet. Funny how an organization that is so gainst paying for anything is staunchly anti-Open Source.
Hands on experience (Score:5, Funny)
I bet that I now lost my reputation for being a geek.
Re:Hands on experience (Score:5, Funny)
Why? Have you established you've ever had hands on a girl?
You have, however, established a reputation for being unable to communicate in correct English...:-) (Okay, it was a typo, relax.)
The kind they have in Hawaii (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, get your co to pay for training in the most interesting setting they'll allow, where you can score a free lunch.
If you have time to "take your time", where you'll really learn is by installing at home. Have the co fork over for VMWare, and set yourself up with a nice virtual network on your home machine. You'll learn way more than through any online training course. You may even want to do this for a few weeks before starting the official training course.
This is a little off beat, but if you're totally new to unix, it might be helpful to nab a copy of Solaris x86 and put that in a vmware machine. I hate to admit this, but when I was starting I had a hard time understanding the linux man pages. The Solaris documentation was just luxurious, and the main options for commands pretty much the same. It used to be (maybe still is) free so you can probably get a copy someplace.
Good luck.
Get a laptop (Score:2)
Geek Cruise... (Score:2, Informative)
Realistically - aside from the "install at home" and "online courses suck" and "go to TLDP" - find a local Linux Users Group. Nothing at all beats face to face and it's value is compounded by the fact that it's hard to come up with months of future questions in a 5 day class - having a group of people you can sit down with any time goes miles to improving your skills with Linux. They'll often see things you'll miss
Lucky (Score:2, Funny)
Find a local consultancy... (Score:2)
Vendor-specific vs. Vendor-neutral Training (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Vendor-specific vs. Vendor-neutral Training (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, if they do a good job of teaching RPM, they'll tell you how to _build_ them from spec files, which does involve knowing how to install tgz's and such. You take knowledge, and you apply it to other things - that's what a good education lets you do.
-Erwos
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Good results from Worcester Polytech (Score:2)
I had been administering Windows boxes since the first betas of NT, but I just couldn't wrap my head around Linux.
Concerned about my then-current job, I paid for this training out of my own pocket, and it was well worth it.
It is intense, 3 days a week for 6 months. There are 11 books, and multiple projects. And I got a lovely certificate at the end.
Novell. (Score:2)
Junior colleges (Score:2)
SANS (Score:2)
Books can be good, but research them carefuly before you plop down $50 for "linux unleashed" or some other crap book.
Some good books to look at:
UNIX System Administration Handbook (3rd Edition)
by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein [THE classic Unix admin book, this edition also has some Linux-specific stuff]
Linux Administration Handboo
At home with a good book (or books) (Score:2)
Maybe this'll help.... (Score:2)
--Dave
Just do it (Score:2)
As far as distros go, you could choose whichever distro they plan to run at work. If they haven't selected one yet you could try the Xandros Free version for now to get your feet wet - it's supposed to be quite easy to set up. Or you could try one of the liveCDs like Knoppix for a while. After that if you really want to learn all of the ins & outs I would suggest Gentoo - you'll learn a lot setting it up since they don
Set up a small net in your work lab (Score:5, Informative)
In your work lab get 2-3 computers. Set up a linux box as a DHCP and DNS server, then maybe add apache, samba, etc. These are the things that you'll likely be using linux for in the enterprise, right? You can play with firewalling and IPSec if that is your thing too.
After the initial install, go here to learn the rest:
The Linux Documentation Project [tldp.org]
The basic sysadmin guide there will give you the basics, and the specific howto's are great for setting up DHCP, DNS, etc.
Another good guide:
IBM Linux Newbie Guide [dbstreams.ca]
Set up that small net, play, learn, then go to your class and learn a lot more.
Have fun!
LPI? (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.lpi.org
-psy
Be careful (Score:2, Insightful)
I am not sure what distro is your company's choice but if you have an opportunity to do so, suggest Red Hat. Product is stable, support is unbelievably goo
Oooh so you wanna learn Linux huh? (Score:2)
You get that 386 running, I don't care if it has 4 megs of ram, an ISA video card and 120 megs of hard drive space! I need it going PRONTO! Got it? Or yer butt is outta here!
And I don't want any whining, I want dual screen X11 running in 16 bit color, with apache and mysql and openldap, as well as samba.
And don't forget, no cdrom or network here, pal. WE'RE installing from floppies, and get plip going on your parallel port, real men don't have time for ethernet!
Oh and I also want it
Some Good Links (Score:2, Informative)
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz [2038bug.com]
The best place for questions:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/ [linuxquestions.org]
More reading:
http://www.tldp.org/ [tldp.org]
------
You've seen the posts, now see the website!
http://hiddenuniverse.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
Dont learn Linux as such... (Score:2)
There are several levels you will need to go through before you are proficient. Someone with unlimited time would do this:
a) Install Mandrake
b) Play a bit
c) get UNIX admin in a nutshell or some such
d) get tuition from a master sysadmin
e) learn
f) understand
g) gain enlightenment
h) install gentoo/bsd or something more server-y
UNfortunately time limitations mean you probably will need to do it this way around:
a) Install Fedora
b) Point a browser at localhost:10000 (webmin)
c) learn
Invest in a LUG (Score:2)
Linux From Scratch (Score:5, Insightful)
I've found most distros have thier own GUI tools to simplify configuring your system but all these tools simply mask what's going on underneath where everything is really just shell commands and scripts strung together. When the GUI fails what you want to do, you're lost without knowing what goes on underneath. Beyond that, if you become familiar with Redhat tools and GUI and your work installs Debian you're starting over. I'd also reccomend learning Bash shell scripting which is the ultimate in telliing your Linux system what to do.
for an example of what's been done with Linux from scratch check out ByzantineOS [sf.net]
you need to set up a network (Score:4, Interesting)
What you want to concentrate on are
*auth services (pam, unix, nis, samba, ldap, etc)
*mail (set up a few MTA's and try some different configurations)
*name services (dns - probably where you should start)
*shell usage (this takes a while)
*routing and firewalling
*printing (cups, samba)
*samba
Set aside a few tasks for yourself and star trying to do things. Stay simple at first, then work your way up to bigger things.
Though I don't see how the boss asking you to learn linux is much of a motivator.
Welcome aboard! (Score:5, Informative)
- Take advantage of an off-site "bootcamp". They won't make you a Linux SysAdmin, but they will give you a very good head start and are a good introduction to Linux. Let someone coach you through the first installs in class - you'll get plenty of opportunity to beat your head against the wall on your own later.
- Definitely set up systems at home. The best way to learn is getting your hands dirty and using it every day. I'd also recommend using it as your primary workstation right off the bat at work; drink your own champaign, so to speak. With tools like rdesktop, smb4k, webmin and OpenOffice.org your should be able to do everything you need to do while you learn.
- Build a good reference library. You've already mentioned O'reilly - they're great, but also build up a library of bookmarks and make friends with google!
- Try many different distros. Everyone you ask will tell you difinitively which one is best. Don't take their word for it, find out for yourself. Besides, my recommendation for a desktop distro for my budy isn't the same as the distro I'd use for myself, and that is different still from the distro that I'd run as a web- or file-server, etc.
Personally, I'd not spend my time, initially, on an online course. In my experience, you're better off starting out in an environment where you have someone in meat-space to bounce questions off of and get answers immediately. Once you know your way around Linux a bit, then pick some specific goals or projects (set up a mail server with DNS, set up a webserver with secure areas and cgi scripting, etc.). Just going through the process of downloading the latest apache and compiling it from source (and forgetting to compile in certain functionality or having to go hunting for supporting libraries for a function you're missing) will give you invaluable insight into the whole process of fine-tuning and customizing your Linux boxes to really make them perform as you want.And if you don't know perl and php, learn them! Windows admins don't naturally think of scripting something right off the bat, at least I didn't. Now, "how can I script this?" is the first thing I ask if I find myself doing the same thing more than once. I've even loaded ActivePerl onto my Windows Servers and have my entire user and group management process scripted. over 18,000 users are created, placed in groups, have their home directories created/moved/archived, etc. based on data gleaned from HR's databases. I used to get lists of hires, fires and transfers and have to manually manage their accounts and data. Not any more. A couple of perl scripts and an Active Directory perl module with a little Win32::OLE thrown in and I spend my valuable time doing more important stuff (like post on /.)
Anyway, this is free advice, which means you get what you pay for ;-) Welcome to the club!
My Advice (Score:3, Interesting)
Second, identify the tasks you do as a windows sysadmin, and come up with a list. The more the merrier. Keep that handy while you're learning, and don't let your training end without learning how to accomplish those tasks in a linux environment. Don't settle for the gui way either. You'll save yourself a lot of time and work in the long run if you learn the command line and some shell scripting, plus you'll make yourself more valuable to your organization.
Also, get your company to get you a subscription to one or more linux sysadmin-oriented publications. Sysadmin mag is pretty good, but I'm sure there are others out there.
Finally, network with other linux techs, whether it's through user groups, training, or some other means. It's a strong argument in favor of in-person training, just because you cant network as well during online or teleconference-style classes. Oh, one other thing -- be sure to explain to your superiors that "putzing around on slashdot" == "hard at work". Good luck!
make sure you bosses know (Score:3, Interesting)
There are lots of good suggestions so far. I personally recommend multiple-approach solution:
1) find a local Linux Users Group and get involved
2) seek out the certification you think is best, such as the Red Hat. Has SAGE ever finished their certification program? Sure, a cert is worth the paper it's printed on, but if you're serious about learning (rather than just getting by), it will provide you with a solid foundation.
3) set up a small network at home. Get a domain, and set up servers for mail, web, etc. See how quickly you get hacked, and learn how to prevent it. Get internal services like print servers, samba, file services, authentication, etc working. Will you be doing a mixed environment at work? Make sure your linux network can serve to your windows boxes
4) someone suggested a "city" at work. this is like your home network, but maybe can mirror better the work environment
5) see if your local community college or university has a unix course. It can be a great way to learn some basics about how a unix system is laid out and give you an intro to scripting.
As for distros, I would advise using a common one that you can easily find help for. Fedora Core, Mandrake, Suse, Slackware, to name a few. Has your work settled on the one they'll use? Start with that one.
Watch websites like rootprompt, and subscribe to magazines like linux journal, etc.
try linux from scratch (Score:3, Informative)
IBM (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, the disto agnostic approuch seems more usefull to me than a red hat cert.
"/Dread"
Certification (Score:3, Informative)
Try to memorize what -d, -w, or -f means for 50 different commands. -f could mean first, force, fake (simulate), file....
You might be able to force it in your brain, but it will fall out again two days after the test unless you are constantly using the commands.
I don't regret paying for the certification and the LPI certainly fills its place, but if I would chose today, I think I would rather go for CompTIA Linux+ certification (which I believe is more up to date), or maybe RedHat Certified Engineer. Does anyone have any opinions on those certificates?
5 commands to Linux Mastery (Score:3, Interesting)
cd
mv
cp
man
Start with "man man". Most important man variation is "man -k someconcept" - eg, "man -k kernel". This will show man pages that purportedly have something to do with someconcept (in reality, that have "someconcept" as a substring in their description).
These 5 commands can help bootstrap anyone on a linux or unix system (unless you are so unfortunate to have a box that does not contain man pages).
sloth_jr
Damn funny! Mod the parrent UP! (Score:2, Informative)
from the looks of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the same freedoms as the GPL.
And, I think my personal fave:
VB can go just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code that's every bit as fast
woooo!, oh man, I can't stop laughing. please, someone make it stop!
Re:What is exactly? (Score:2, Offtopic)
While we are recommending books: Systems Admin.... (Score:2)