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Best Training in Linux Administration?

Posted by Cliff on from the fast-track-to-a-Linux-education dept.

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?"

6 of 467 comments (clear)

  1. TrainingCamp for LPIC by Semireg · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did a 6-day bootcamp style training session with TrainingCamp. I successfully attained my LPIC-1. Out of the 6 people in my class 2 (including myself) had previous Linux experience and we both passed, the others failed. However, having many coworkers and friends that are teaching themselves linux, this would have given them one of the best starting points around. Highly recommended no matter what your skill level.

  2. Go RedHat by buchalka · · Score: 5, Informative

    Personally I'd recommend the RedHat training.

    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 linux and never looked back!

    Good luck with it.

    You could dual-boot an existing Windows machine or run VMWARE so you c

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  3. Online courses... by chrispyman · · Score: 5, Informative

    If I were you I'd stay away from an online course. From what I've found, they usually aren't much better than just reading and doing reseach on your own, the only diffrence is that they have exams and it adds to your GPA. Perhaps you should find a real class of some type (perhaps one of those weekend campy type deals) and get some real world hands on experience.

  4. Set up a small net in your work lab by SCHecklerX · · Score: 5, Informative
    As many others have suggested, you should play on your own. I'd still take the class though. Set up a small network BEFORE going to the class, though. Then you will have intelligent questions to ask, and you will have some goals in your training.

    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

    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

    Set up that small net, play, learn, then go to your class and learn a lot more.

    Have fun!

  5. Re:Use it at home by damiangerous · · Score: 5, Informative
    Install Linux at home. It's the best training you'll ever get.

    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.

  6. Re:Pick the hardest Distro by MoThugz · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's not the best way... that's overkill. Hard doesn't necessarily mean best.

    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".

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