How to get experience at Linux--to break the bottleneck of my career? [Help]

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northyb

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#96919 7-Feb-2012 16:31

Hi fellow geekzoners,

Not sure if I should put this post at 'OS/Linux', I am keen to get any helpful suggestion at Linux study/practices.

In order to break the bottleneck of my career, I would like to be updated and have new skill set, such as linux/unix, especially at server and network side. I know some courses around in CHRISTCHURCH but I'm only available after work. Could any experienced professional give tips/suggestion for self-study or part-time course around CHC?
I'm also keen to give a free hand at any linux/unix related projects to gain some experience.
Thanks.

----My Situation/background: BE bachlor. Having gain MCSA2003, and CCNA, I jump to this technician role from Help Desk about 3 years ago. But feel like being stuck here, as there's no way to be promoted to the HO at North Island, to a system/network engineer due to current economics and also because my work only has limited server operations involved in CHC.

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meow
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#578296 7-Feb-2012 16:36

Install something like Ubuntu, use it as your day-to-day OS for a start.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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northyb

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#578299 7-Feb-2012 16:47

Yes.I did it few months ago. But I need enviroment with basic servers and network.

That's why I would like to have after-hour courses.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway.

muppet

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#578303 7-Feb-2012 16:49

Here's what I'd do.

1) Register your own domain name.

2) Setup a Linux Mailserver so that it starts to accept mail for that domain name. Learn how to read that mail using mutt. Learn how to filter that mail using procmail, how to spam filter it using spamassassian.

3) Setup an Apache HTTP server so that visiting that domain name gives a site. It could be a complex PHP site if you wanted, or just simple HTML. Maybe you could setup a Webmail program like SquirrelMail or RoundCube (both great PHP webmail packages)

4) Learn about rsync for backing up file, how to edit a file using vi/vim. Learn about SSH and SCP. Learn how to use cron to run tasks automatically.

Most of all, try and do most things using the unix shell. Learning how to do it all using the GUI is OK, but when it's 3am in the morning and you need to restart a broken service, you'll probably only have an SSH CLI terminal and not much else.

Hope this gives you some direction.

tatbaird

142 posts

Master Geek

#578306 7-Feb-2012 16:53

Hi,

An RHCE or RHCT (Red Hat) course in NZ will run around 7 large. Good stuff but expensive. Cheaper option is online stuff, CBT Nuggets and others, probably a few hundred bucks for that. Then there's Amazon, any Linux tutorial type book that you can work through. You say you want to learn server/networking aspects, but more important if you're a beginner to start with the basics. Do you know Linux right now?
Anyway the adage for me is you wanna use Linux? Get Ubuntu. You wanna learn Linux? Get Slackware. Right off the bat you gotta install the thing command line style. The perfect setup for me was desktop pc with working OS and net connection, and right there a laptop to play with. Refer to the net, howtos, guides, etc while trying out different stuff with Linux on the laptop. Then again you could just get CentOS which is just the downstream version of Red Hat and learn that. Apache, Samba, etc.

Hope that helps.

michaelmurfy

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#578385 7-Feb-2012 19:45

^^ Or another great distribution I like is Arch Linux.

muppet

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#578387 7-Feb-2012 19:46

Oh yes I forgot to mention - Make sure you pick a distribution you like and whenever there's a Linux thread, add a post that says "Don't forget about X Distribution"

johnr

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#578391 7-Feb-2012 19:50

As Muppet has pointed out learn VI / VIM once you can master this it's a skill in it's self

Work also put me on a Redhat 1 week training course at Auld house a while back this was also very good, Glad they paid :P

John

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1080p

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#578411 7-Feb-2012 20:33

johnr: As Muppet has pointed out learn VI / VIM once you can master this it's a skill in it's self

Work also put me on a Redhat 1 week training course at Auld house a while back this was also very good, Glad they paid :P

John

Learning vim is simple: aptitude install nano

Problem solved.

muppet

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#578417 7-Feb-2012 20:39

1080p:
johnr: As Muppet has pointed out learn VI / VIM once you can master this it's a skill in it's self

Work also put me on a Redhat 1 week training course at Auld house a while back this was also very good, Glad they paid :P

John

Learning vim is simple: aptitude install nano

Problem solved.

Yea that's great advice until you want to edit a file on a Solaris box. Or a FreeBSD box. Or a box who's networking stack is broken and you need to fix it before you can apt-get install anything. Or you're editing files on a small embedded linux device etc etc.

Learning at least the basics of vim is very useful because it's a very powerful editor and it's included by default on almost any unix device. The "by default" is the key bit. The same way that learning cp/mv/rm is better than installing Midnight Commander.

johnr

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#578441 7-Feb-2012 21:18

Just repeating what Muppet has advised,

Do not rely on Nano to be on everything! Once you get the hang of vi you won't worry about Nano

John

michaelmurfy

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#578492 7-Feb-2012 23:25

Vi annoys the heck out of me - but I do /sometimes/ use it. Since all my boxen are either Debian or Arch powered I stick with Nano.

johnr

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#578497 7-Feb-2012 23:29

michaelmurfy: Vi annoys the heck out of me - but I do /sometimes/ use it. Since all my boxen are either Debian or Arch powered I stick with Nano.

I have a app called vi learn and it's quite good

northyb

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#578551 8-Feb-2012 09:38

Morning guys,

Thanks for all your replys and suggestions.

Although I can not get the lab enviroment setup, I still can do basic practice on some of my old machines(not enough ram for win7 but should be fine to be a test linux/unix server in LAN).

Will have it setup and install some common apps to start my practice.

So glad to have you guys here. I like geekzone and keen zoners.

Thanks

ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#578559 8-Feb-2012 09:55

have you thought about setting up an internal Linux network in your home? Use one machine as a file server, and get some streaming media up and running to some Linux client machines with light weight installs (thats my next project) make sure you have a machine somewhere with a working internet connection :)

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northyb

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#578650 8-Feb-2012 12:20

Scott,

Yes. That's the thought in mind. Actually I have few machines to build it up.
I am search for a proper OS to download first.

If you are in CHC, we can try such a project together.

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