[ale] somewhat OT: sysadmin must-knows?

[Jeff Hubbs]

These are excellent recommendations.

On Fri, 2004-11-12 at 09:06, Jerald Sheets wrote:
> I have recommended Aileen Frisch's book "Essential Systems
> Administration" to every new admin I've ever known or trained, and bar
> none...they've all come back to thank me later.
> 
> The single most important thing is to prototype, prototype, prototype.
> 
> Go down to your local PC barn and get a couple of capable machines, and
> do absolutely *EVERYTHING* you could think about needing in te
> enterprise in your own basement.
> 
> Make web servers, make FTP servers, make a full authentication framework
> over LDAP.
> 
> Anything neat you read, try it yourself.
> 
> Get subscriptions to Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, and Sysadmin and the
> student subscriptions to USENIX and SAGE.  Go to any shows you can, and
> hang out with your closest LUG.
> 
> That's what I would recommend.
> 
> --Jerald
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2004-11-12 at 00:13 -0500, jay wrote:
> > For everyone who doesn't know me, name is Jay Loden, I'm a student and 
> > assistant systems administrator at Elon University (NC), and I need your help 
> > and advice.
> > 
> > I just kind of "fell into" my job with systems administration, much the way  I 
> > got involved with Linux, and it turns out I like both.  I am graduating in 
> > May and I want to work in systems administration (or indeed anything where I 
> > can use Linux daily).  Here's the problem: I'm graduating with a degree in 
> > Corporate Communications.
> > 
> > Basically, I need to teach myself every scrap of useful information I can cram 
> > into my brain before May about being a sysadmin, because I'm sure haven't 
> > gotten it from my classes!  What I'm looking for is helpful suggestions, i.e. 
> > books I need to read, skills I need to have, experience that's critical, etc. 
> > 
> > I am working on honing my Python scripting skills (with the hope of being a 
> > competent Python programmer by May), and I am rapidly learning as much as 
> > possible about Linux in general, but I know that there are bound to be things 
> > I'm neglecting or unaware of that are essential sysadmin know-how.  I would 
> > love to hear from systems administrators out there on the list...how did you 
> > get into your field?  What do you think I need to know? How can I learn it 
> > best?  Is getting involved with OSS projects helpful (e.g. helping with a 
> > distro)? What options are there for a guy with only a small amount of 
> > "official" sysadmin experience who's willing to learn fast and hard? 
> > 
> > Thanks in advance and I apologize for the lengthy mail! 
> > 
> > -Jay
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
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