this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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What actually is supposed to be the ideal way to learn? Say, for someone trying to be a sysadmin
Here’s a nickel kid. Get yourself a better computer.
If you want to be a sysadmin learn Linux/Unix. Basic bash scripting might be useful down the line to help understand a bit of what’s going on under the hood.
IMHO networking would probably be a better secondary place to focus for a sysadmin track rather than OOP concepts, algorithms etc.
Thank you for the response. I'll be sure to up my PC hardware game soon since I have plans to leap into a career shift. What kinds of specs would look good in your opinion?
My advice would be install any free virtualization software (virtualbox comes to mind) and create some linux VMs, dick around with them. No need to upgrade anything unless you're using some ancient potato with more than 10 years
It’s a reference from an old comic
https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/steverumsby/2004/09/20/1b2.JPG
As for Linux stuff grab something small and low powered (raspberry pi etc) and start installing some distros! The possibilities are really endless. Setup a network wide ad blocker, start your own IPTV server, you can setup a networked radio receiver, WireGuard for VPNs. Immerse yourself and figure out what you find interesting.
There isn't a singular "right way", but you need to know the basics of computer science like OOP, algorithms, and data structures if you want to be a decent programmer. Everyone has their own advice, but here's mine for whatever it's worth.
If you want to be a sysadmin, you should learn command line languages like batch, sed, and bash (or a superset language like batsh). Start simple and don't overwhelm yourself, these languages can behave strangely and directly impact your OS.
When you have a basic grasp on those languages (don't need to get too complex, just know what you're doing on the CLI), I'd recommend learning Python so you can better learn OOP and study networking while following along with the flask and socket libraries. The particular language doesn't matter as much as the actual techniques you'll learn, so don't get hung up if you know or want to learn a different language.
Finally, make sure you understand the hardware, software, and firmware side of things. I'd avoid compTIA certs out of principle, but they're the most recognizable IT certification a person can get. You need to have some understanding of operating systems, and need to understand how to troubleshoot beyond power cycling
Your advice here is worth a lot. Really helped build the environment around this profession, thank you
There is a website called roadmap.sh which has both Skill and Role based roadmaps to learn how to program. There is no actual “SysAdmin” role path since our job can technically have several routes by itself.
I personally use Debian at my org, and found Python and Bash enough to automate small things that need to be done in a regular basis.
But if for example, you were a Windows SysAdmin you’d have to learn to use PowerShell ~ or VBS (idk if those scripts are still a thing)~ .
Windows sys admin here, I haven't seen a vbs script in ages. I'm primarily in PowerShell these days.
That’s what I thought, I remember the XP days when I was a kid and I only remember having seen those as malicious scripts.
Thank you, been looking at a career switch for some time. I appreciate the input
I'm a Windows Sysadmin. A lot of places, just knowing your way around Active Directory and Windows Server is good enough to get your foot in the door. O365 management is pretty easy and check out some Azure courses on YouTube.
PowerShell has been helpful although I'm far from being fluent, "Learn PowerShell in a month of Lunches" was recommended to me and I agree it's a good starting spot.
Build a Linux machine and just play around getting familiar with the CLI and basic commands, I build a lot of applications that we host on Linux AWS machines.
As others have said, networking knowledge is almost a must so at the very least look into a networking+ cert or just run through the course. Cert-wise, networking+ and security+ would get you pretty well rounded (for what it's worth I have zero certs, just have done some reading and never officially got certified, the ability to prove your skills in most scenarios will be "good enough")
Most importantly, fake it til you make it. You will make mistakes and you will bring down servers. A good employer isn't worried about the mistakes you make, but how you recover. I'm self taught with everything and started as a tier 1 tech support role for an internet company 10 years ago. If I can do it, anyone can.
@CoolBeance @mastermind
Note: my advice might be useless. I am not a sysadmin nor do I want to be. I am however a CS student and am mostly just hugely obsessed with linux.
I learned a lot of sysadmin stuff by just getting heavily into linux and setting up my system from scratch (I started with debian, later moved to arch, then Gentoo, and now am on NixOS).
The common thread between all of these distros, is that they aren't really downstream of anything, which means you need to setup everything for yourself.
Another thing I make heavy use of is the CLI. Using a window manager, rather than a normal full blown desktop environment promotes this a lot. These days I use hyprland.
Another good exercise is just setting up a server. Setting up a media server, as well as my mastodon server taught me a lot.
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