Question for Sys admins

[jd99]

I was wondering how did you guys get your foot in the door. I have been doing NT/2000 network administrator for about 2 years, and have some Cicso/HP wan experience as well. I am just wondering the best way to switch over to the "other side". Learning it is hard enough when you work 50+ hours a week +2 hours travel time everyday, but then getting your foot in the door must be even tougher. I do have some unix experience, but its all minor crap, helping out the real Unix admin while my side of things were slow. I look foward to hearing your responses.

Thank you
Joe

 

[ackufel]

I got my start by doing one job half-time and then doing
Unix Sys. Admin. the other half. Eventually we got more
and more Unix servers and workstations, and the job developed into a full-time career. On-the-job training is
always the best training, but I would recommend that you
at least take the basic Sys. Admin. courses that Sun offers.
I've worked with IBM, SGI, and Sun systems, and the Sun
workstations and servers have been the easiest to maintain
and the most reliable. The Solaris OS is also the easiest
to install and upgrade.

 

[jd99]

The problem is that I really do not have time to take a course. I was planning on buying a sparcstation and using the books that I have. I already have Solaris for intel running on one machine, but I want the real thing.

 

[KenCunningham]

I basically drifted into sys admin, having left university and become a 'general' civil servant, as they were known in those days. Never having had any computing experience, I was somewhat perturbed when my line manager at the time decided I'd make sys admin material. However, 15 years down the line, I feel at least partially comfortable with what I'm doing!

Seriously though, you could do worse than read every 'beginners' book you can get your hands on and practise, practise, practise. Your 2000/Network experience will stand you in good stead for many of the day-to-day unix tasks which admins perform, so you have a head start on many people who are thrown in at the deep end. Use that to your advantage. I would suggest you start by searching this site and others for documents relating to the 'basics' that is daily routine tasks and stuff that we all do. Get a handle on these and the other bits and pieces follow on eventually. This site is an excellent place to get an idea of the type of problems we all face from time to time, but remember it's the solution that's the interesting stuff. All the very best in your endeavors.

 

[jd99]

Thanks for the input.

Joe

 

[bi]

Joe,

In addition to what the others have said so far, I would like to add two things: don't downplay doing the "little stuff" you've been doing to help your Unix sys admin. That's how you learn. And, I would also advise you to learn shell scripting. All the best Unix sys admins I know are great scripters. Good luck.

 

[Guest_imported]

Joe,
Depending upon your company you could put in a request to work in the Unix System Admin side of things. If that isn't an option I would purchase a Sparc 5 or some other cheap sun box and practice loading solaris on it. Then while reading the sun book make changes to the configuration. Actual hands on work helped me a lot to understand some of the concepts. Like changeing shells and seeing how certain syntax is needed in the different shells. Plus like the last guy said you can practice scripting. Also look for a job opportunity for either an entry level Unix System Admin or a cross Windows/Unix guy. Some companies are willing to work with you if you know one or the other really well and are a beginner in the other one. Good luck.
Vince

 

[jd99]

Thanks again. This input is very highly appreciated.

Joe

 

[MarkBox]

I was lucky enough to join a company that was almost a 100% UNIX based environment even though I mostly only had MS-Windows experience.

Nothin quite like being forced to use UNIX full time to learn things quickly

I have found that Solaris SPARC and Solaris Intel (x86) are very similar and sometimes I forget which one I'm using.

The first thing you need to do is become proficient in using vi. I know it "seems" clunky at first but it's essential when dealing with UNIX. I now find myself attempting vi commands when I'm stuck using other editors

Also, you might consider getting MKSToolkit for Windows. This software will give you access to UNIX commands and shell programming on the Windows platform. If you start using MKS Toolkit while doing your everday Windows work it should help jump start your skills towards UNIX.