Linux Admininstration Resources?

shadfc asks: "I'm starting a new job as the system administrator for a small company in Tampa. They currently have 10 Red Hat servers (they are open to distribution change) that have not been actively maintained for a few months. I'm a Junior in College with a decent amount of Linux experience, but this will be my first job in this kind of position and responsibility. I'm asking for resources that can help fill in the holes in my knowledge and help make me a better administrator. Quality books on the subject would be preferred, but any advice is welcome. Thanks!"

Comments

You better patch them first

[SpaFF]

They currently have 10 Red Hat servers (they are open to distribution change) that have not been actively maintained for a few months.

Can you give us the IP addresses of these machines?

Seriously though, make sure those babies are patched and secure before you worry about learning anything.

Re:You better patch them first

[j-turkey]

I'd recommend installing gentoo.

Without getting into a flame war (I won't reply to flames) -- I'd suggest thinking long and hard about installing Gentoo on 10 machines running an existing environment. By all means, install it on your home computer(s). It's quite flexible and is perhaps one of the coolest Linux distros that I've ever worked with.

Presumably, these Linux boxes are actually doing something useful, and they're important to the company that you're working for. I also presume that you'll be leaving the company in 18 months when you finish up your undergrad degree. Now, if you move to a semi-obscure distro like Gentoo, you will leave them with Gentoo. How many admins really know the ins and outs of Gentoo as well as they know some of the more popular distributions like RH, SUSE, Debian, etc? They may have a difficult time finding a competent SA to run those Gentoo boxes...they'll curse your name.

For many (and I'd say that these are the more forward-thinking competent SA's) a large part of systems administration is building an environment that's scalable, easily reproducable, and have everything documented so that he next guy can pick right up where you left off. Building very complex systems from the ground up is very cool...but IMO, is probably best for larger companies with money to toss into a proper staff. I always saw one of Gentoo's strongest points as being an easy way out for large companies who would want to roll their own. Unfortunately, you are one guy -- with ten systems (and I don't know how many users). Best bet for someone like you? Keep it simple.

I would suggest looking into a mainstream Linux distro that will be very easy for you to troubleshoot and maintain (I know that Gentoo is easy to maintain from an update perspective -- don't go there). There are a lot of good distributions out there, and I won't recommend any particular one.

Next step (and here's where I actually get into answering your question): Learn (bourne) shell scripting. Even if you already know shell scripting, your best bet is to learn how to do it in practical situations -- figure out which tedious tasks you tend to perform regularly and start there. The next step is to apply this knowledge to bigger jobs, that you might only perform once. While you're at shell scripting, regular expressions are of very high importance. Learn them. Finally, a higher-level language (like Perl) is very useful; especially when dealing with strings. In my earlier days of SA work, not knowing Perl was a big hinderance -- no sense writing 50 lines of shellcode when 15 lines of Perl could handle it (and faster taboot).

Anyway, that should get you started. Good luck at this gig -- and don't blow it. Good SA jobs can be tricky to come by.

Re:You better patch them first

[nocomment]

I'd suggest thinking long and hard about installing Gentoo on 10 machines running an existing environment.

no no no no never install it on a production environment as a test. Find another machine and install it a few times, on that same machine. Don't format your production machines until you're confident in your skills.

Skip the RPMs

[Graelin]

Before I get modded to oblivion, hear me out.

Whenever you install software, or perform an update, don't just jump into the RPMs. Build it from scratch on a dev box or something. Get really really familiar with the package. RPMs gloss over a lot of detail that a good sys admin should know or at least have written down somewhere. Aside from the minuta of the package you're bound to learn a thing or two about how to set up a system. Some packages require a lot of security prep-work before they will work. Others will not. After you've seen enough of both worlds you'll understand why they should and how to implement it. Last but not least, all the README files you'll go through will likely teach you some neat tricks that can be applied everywhere.

Second, embrace your distro. If you're going to stick with RedHat see if you can get up2date working properly. Or with debian, apt-get hourly from a local "approved" package mirror. These things make your life a lot easier if done right.

Books are fine and good but they're usually out of date. Understanding the system will enable you to handle the changes between the print date of the book and the release date of the software.

Try to get topic-specific books if you can. It's impossible to cram all aspects of the admin life into a great tomb - even a dozen of them. You'll certainly be lacking detail. Check out Safari (no link, sorry.) They have an enourmous library and their parent company makes some of the best techincal books ever.

Lastly, KISS. Use a real load balancer, get an SSL accelerator, get a hardware firewall. Yes yes, Linux can do all these things - but you'll spend much more time maintaining it than you would the Cisco box. (If that won't start a flamewar on here, nothing will.)

And, lest I forget, good luck!

Re:I'll just ask what everyone's thinking...

[linzeal]

Companies should be able to hire basic competancy and willing to learn enthusiasium over stodgy experience and self assuredness. I hate working with cocky sysadmins, and imho you run into more and more of them that are older nowadays. Young blood that feigns wisdom usually looks like a fool, and old folks that flaunt wisdom are no better. People that know who they are but do not need to keep reminding everyone else are the best people to do business or work with and I would rather deal with them over percieved security advantages for the ease of interaction when shit does go wrong.