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An answer to the question "how do I learn to be a Linux sysadmin?"
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An answer to the question "how do I learn to be a Linux sysadmin?"

i saw this in reddit, and i dont know if it is mentioned in that deep cest pit. i just wantd to share the link for the linux enthusiasts'

Iconrad answered the question "how do I learn to be a Linux sysadmin?" in detail.

link

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.

5) Reconfigure all 3 servers to use LDAP authentication.

6) Create two new VMs, again unattendedly, which will then be Postgresql VMs. Use pgpool-II to set up master/master replication between them. Export the database from your Spacewalk server and import it into the new pgsql cluster. Reconfigure your Spacewalk instance to run off of that server.

7) Set up a Puppet Master. Plug it into the Spacewalk server for identifying the inventory it will need to work with. (Cheat and use ansible for deployment purposes, again plugging into the Spacewalk server.)

8) Deploy another VM. Install iscsitgt and nfs-kernel-server on it. Export a LUN and an NFS share.

9) Deploy another VM. Install bakula on it, using the postgresql cluster to store its database. Register each machine on it, storing to flatfile. Store the bakula VM's image on the iscsi LUN, and every other machine on the NFS share.

10) Deploy two more VMs. These will have httpd (Apache2) on them. Leave essentially default for now.

11) Deploy two more VMs. These will have tomcat on them. Use JBoss Cache to replicate the session caches between them. Use the httpd servers as the frontends for this. The application you will run is JBoss Wiki.

12) You guessed right, deploy another VM. This will do iptables-based NAT/round-robin loadbalancing between the two httpd servers.

13) Deploy another VM. On this VM, install postfix. Set it up to use a gmail account to allow you to have it send emails, and receive messages only from your internal network.
14) Deploy another VM. On this VM, set up a Nagios server. Have it use snmp to monitor the communication state of every relevant service involved above. This means doing a "is the right port open" check, and a "I got the right kind of response" check and "We still have filesystem space free" check.

15) Deploy another VM. On this VM, set up a syslog daemon to listen to every other server's input. Reconfigure each other server to send their logging output to various files on the syslog server. (For extra credit, set up logstash or kibana or greylog to parse those logs.)

16) Document every last step you did in getting to this point in your brand new Wiki.

17) Now go back and create Puppet Manifests to ensure that every last one of these machines is authenticating to the LDAP servers, registered to the Spacewalk server, and backed up by the bakula server.

18) Now go back, reference your documents, and set up a Puppet Razor profile that hooks into each of these things to allow you to recreate, from scratch, each individual server.

19) Destroy every secondary machine you've created and use the above profile to recreate them, joining them to the clusters as needed.

20) Bonus exercise: create three more VMs. A CentOS 5, 6, and 7 machine. On each of these machines, set them up to allow you to create custom RPMs and import them into the Spacewalk server instance. Ensure your Puppet configurations work for all three and produce like-for-like behaviors.

Do these things and you will be fully exposed to every aspect of Linux Enterprise systems administration. Do them well and you will have the technical expertise required to seek "Senior" roles. If you go whole-hog crash-course full-time it with no other means of income, I would expect it would take between 3 and 6 months to go from "I think I'm good with computers" to achieving all of these -- assuming you're not afraid of IRC and google (and have neither friends nor family ...).

i'd love to see let users input

Thanked by 2earl vimalware

Comments

  • SpeedyKVMSpeedyKVM Banned, Member
    edited April 2015

    You didn't really touch on the Kernel, file systems, security, selinux.... The above might be useful to your needs, but they don't build on how linux at the foundation works etc.

    http://www.redhat.com/en/services/certification/rhcsa made up of;

    Red Hat System Administration I (RH124)
    http://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/rh124-red-hat-system-administration-i

    Red Hat System Administration II (RH134)
    http://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/rh134-red-hat-system-administration-ii

    Thanked by 1tridinebandim
  • Answer: Install Linux

  • Redhat produces (maybe via an intermediary) a set of videos on learning to administer Redhat Linux. Those maybe a good start.

    Thanked by 1tridinebandim
  • ehabehab Member
    edited April 2015

    ditch windows for good.

  • It also looks the specification on how to be a Linux system admin is to install some obscure software that very few companies or enterprises use.

  • tridinebandimtridinebandim Member
    edited April 2015

    Damian said: Linux system admin

    enterprise system admin... :) he has some comments about his software and distro selection

  • Every sysadmin is hatched in specific environment. Personally, I know other tasks, quite challenging, which develop ability to be resourceful and find solutions, despite anything.

    For example, install Solaris 8 on KVM, with properly set up network adapter, so that it doesn't consume 100% of allocated CPU.

    Or take Ubuntu 14.04, all updates latest, install Wine of latest build and make Return to Castle Wolfenstein work under Wine in both windowed and fullscreen modes.

    In my everyday routine work I find tasks which at times seem impossible to solve, and I am given directions to solve them quickly. So, nothing teaches to be a good sysadm better than properly set challenges.

  • My learning path normally goes along the:

    1. Install VPS
    2. Fiddle with installed OS, install stuff, configure stuff, record what you do right
    3. Break the VPS due to over fiddling / being an idiot in point 2
    4. Reinstall & start again :)

    Over many years I have built up a decent understanding that will keep a box secure and allow me to fix things if it breaks.

    Not the best way to do things I guess but its worked for me but I am a more hands on person.

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