Best Training in Linux Administration?

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?"

Comments

you need to set up a network

[wobblie]

and sandbox your activities in it. If you can get your hands on 3 or 4 pc's and a cheap hub, you can get very far.

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.

Building "scale" networks is great

[GoClick]

Depending on how complex your network is you might even be able to get the company to fund a "model city" at work in a spare room.

You can use local sources to buy outdated computers, used switches, hubs, routers and etc to build a "dumbed down" low cost clone of your current network which will allow you to learn using it just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.

Gentoo not relevant to sys admin

[kuom]

I run several machines at home, one of them is a gentoo machine. I like Gentoo, but it will *not* teach you much about being a system administrator. It will teach you about some basics about linux (installing one, to be specific), which I don't believe have much to do with sys admin. For example, bootstrapping your kernel. During the gentoo installation, that's just one command, you run the bootstrap script (I believe it was bootstrap.sh), and off it goes (for the next few hours). You don't really learn anything from that except typing in that "bootstrap" command.

I recommend that you read about real TCP/IP networking, as most Windows sys admins I know don't have the correct knowledge about networking (they only know it in Microsoft terms). O'Reilly's TCP/IP Network Administration is a good book, so is Linux TCP/IP Network Administration by Scott Mann.

Get comfortable with command line. I know many Windows sys admins who fear the command line tools. Most linux programs now have GUI counter parts, but to really get the most out of a tool, command line is still your best friend. It also will make remote administration a lot easier for you.

Find out what distribution you will be using, and join the user mailing list(s). Also get familiar with package management of your choice (RPM, DEB, or source). As a sys admin, you will quickly find out that custom compiling everything will become a nightmare to maintain. For me, I build everything into RPMs, even if it's just a single file script. This makes administering multiple machines much easier.

Re:Don't forget about the time investment

[SealBeater]

I disagree. I am all self-taught, and I belive that taking a class only
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:Use it at home

[tverbeek]

Following your advice leads to sloppiness and "good enough"-ness. Not exactly skills that will endear you to an employer.

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.

Pick an old book

[iNiTiUM]

In addition to choosing a difficult distro to start with, pick up an older unix book. Something mid-80s or earlier. Why? Those books have more useful commandline tricks, simple stuff that is often overlooked in the modern day age of pointy-clicky. Scrounge your used book stores for a copy of "A Practical Guide to UNIX System V" for starters. I also scored a whole accounting box full of HP-UX manuals awhile back, many many neat tricks, mostly forgotten shell script kung-fu. You'll quickly pick up what still works and what doesn't. Basic commandline zen goes lightyears, especially if you plan to work with other variations of *n?x...

Hell, just install FreeBSD and bookmark the online handbook...