Looking to Move from Windows to Linux Administration
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Cross posting for someone that found me on Twitter:
I wanted to talk about a DevOps position and the tools or resources used in that day to day role.
I am linux+ and LPIC-1 certified tech and have been studying for my RHCSA certification to help me find a junior linux admin position. I only have experience in Windows environments and have been using Linux academy and virtual environments at home to learn more about scripting tasks (vagrant and cron jobs) to help me but because I don't know what real world problems I should be focused on I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time. When I try to create scenarios for my house like setting up Nagios to monitor the router and my roommates xbox I dont know if thats practical or if I'm just wasting me time.
I guess what I would like to know about furthering my career is.. .
What are some more practical scenarios I can put myself through to get a firm grasp on a role as a Linux admin? I would like to be able to answer and solve any interview questions that may come my way and resolve issues in a timely manner if I were to find a new job.- T
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To get started here, I have an article On DevOps and Snowflakes that will help lay some groundwork for the discussion in that direction.
Also of general interest for this topic, I am working on a book on Linux System Administration here on the community.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking to Move from Windows to Linux Administration:
I wanted to talk about a DevOps position and the tools or resources used in that day to day role.
Generally DevOps is something that you don't really tackle until you are firmly into the system administration game because it requires a lot of advanced knowledge and thinking. But there is no actual barrier to getting started with it earlier. Common tools that Linux DevOps Admins would likely come across would include Ansible, Chef and Puppet. These are not the only players in the game, but they are the big ones and all of them have free options so that you can be playing with them in your home lab.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking to Move from Windows to Linux Administration:
When I try to create scenarios for my house like setting up Nagios to monitor the router and my roommates xbox I dont know if thats practical or if I'm just wasting me time.
This is a great place to be starting. Nagios and monitoring tools like it, like Zenoss and Zabbix, are great projects to have. They are useful and you can really monitor your environment.
We have had a lot of threads on this stuff but to rehash, here are some ideas of Linux projects that you could be doing in your home lab:
- Email server (like Zimbra)
- IM server like RocketChat, MatterMost, OpenFire
- Wiki server, WordPress server
- Logging server like ELK or GrayLog
- Jump server (for security)
- Database server(s)
- NFS storage
- Samba storage
- Samba4 Active Directory
- YUM Repo
- Media Server for Home
Things like that. You can do an awful lot with systems at home.
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Certs aren't bad, I'd keep pursuing those, but the experience and home lab stuff is probably bigger at this point. The RHCSA is a stepping stone but is useless (mostly) for finding work. The RHCE is where you want to get to to really see some results.
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Container technology like Docker and LXC/LXD are hot tech these days. Worth putting in some effort there as well.
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@scottalanmiller To obtain the RHCSE you need to get the RHCSA first dont you? Should I focus on getting those at all then? Im definitely going to create a Media Server this weekend and a wordpress server at home. This is good information. Im also going to look into Containers too. I have noticed that its become a hot topic these days.
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@techgameteddy said in Looking to Move from Windows to Linux Administration:
@scottalanmiller To obtain the RHCSE you need to get the RHCSA first dont you? Should I focus on getting those at all then? Im definitely going to create a Media Server this weekend and a wordpress server at home. This is good information. Im also going to look into Containers too. I have noticed that its become a hot topic these days.
The RHCE does seem to bring in job options. But certs, in general, are not a path to Linux jobs. I would focus more on gaining skills and experience. Volunteer work can do wonders for getting into Linux.
