I want to / need to learn scripting to move ahead

[unc92sax]

I'm in IT Security at a major utilities enterprise and believe I have hit a ceiling. I have my MCSE as well as Security+ and Linux+. I'm a go to guy on my team and the primary UNIX analyst. My job involves AD, RACF, UNIX, and RSA which is good, but we use a lot of tools that don't require much technical know how. It's pretty much a glorified helpdesk job (though not actually helpdesk here).

I am getting a little bored with it and want to move up or out of the company to a more technical position. *NIX or MS focus (or both), it doesn't matter to me. I am finding that the one piece I am missing in my toolbox is scripting. I must learn it to move on. What kind should I learn to get to where I want to be. Any ideas?

 

[North323]

get your CISSP and learn Perl

 

[gbaughma]

Scripting" is kind of a broad term.

You could script in:
WSH
Perl
ASP
*Nix Shell
DOS

... I mean, there's a million script languages out there....



Just my 2¢

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[unc92sax]

Unfortunately, I don't have enough years in security to sit for the CISSP. That is a goal of mine for two years from now if it's still a relevant cert.

I know there are tons of scripting languages. I'm just trying to figure out which are the most desired in today's IT environment.

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

[North323]

you can still get your CISSP and you are endorsed as an 'Associate' until you get the required experience.

 

[mrdenny]

In windows DOS and PowerShell (for shops with newer versions of Windows) are king.

In *nix shops shell scripting.

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[kmcferrin]

To expand on MrDenny's response, if you go with Windows you'll want to learn VBScript (for WSH) and Powershell. Powershell is relatively new, and it probably will be the standard for Windows scripting going forward, but because it requires the .NET Framework it isn't part of most out of the box installs. WSH, however is a part of every windows install going back to Windows 2000 (it was an add-on for NT4) and therefore scripting to WSH with VBScript will work in nearly every case for Windows. WSH also supports JavaScript, so that might be an option, but VBScript is far more common for WSH scripting.

For the Unix side, it seems like Perl is the most common language, but there are also shell scripts that you can write that (presumably) vary depend on whether you're using KSH, BASH, or whatever other shell might be out there.

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[mikrom]

Probably, you will need to learn more than one scripting language according to your work requirements.
I thing, Perl is very good choice, because it's still number one, though it's not easiest to learn. It's useful to learn additionally any newer scripting language too - maybe Python or Ruby which are fully OOP.
Because of my work requirements I first learned REXX. Then I needed something more powerful, so I learned Python and used it outside of scripting for programming of bigger tasks too.
Then I learned Perl and a little bit of Tcl.
Now I'm lerning Ruby and I'm looking at Groovy... but it's my hobby to learn new things.

I used WSH in one project only. In WSH you can mix several languguages in one script. I used JScript, but for some functions I needed to use VBScript too. The ActiveState implementations of Perl and Python can be used with WSH too.
Now on the MS platform the powershell should be the number one. But I'm not sure - some years ago it was WSH. I think on MS platform the DOS batch scripting is still mostly used.

If I would you, I would rather start with something which is multiplatform: Perl, Python, Ruby,...

 

[kmcferrin]

Mikrom,

WSH is still the standard interface on Windows systems, for reasons outlined above. Powershell is coming up fast, but it's not backwards compatible or widely available in most environments.

Depending on the task, writing DOS-based scripts/batch files is not often used. If you're just doing simple file operations then it can work, or concatenating several command-line tools it will also work. But if you want truly powerful scripting with the ability to easily interact with ADSI and WMI, you will have to use WSH or Powershell.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[Trevoke]

Ruby is an interpreted language, which means cross-platform, which is pretty damn handy.
on Windows, specifically, you do need to learn WSH and most likely Powershell as well, given the way things are going.

But, then again, Ruby allows you to interact with WSH, so...

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