Whether you're a systems admin, or a network admin, or just a general "IT person" at your day job, what programs or features of the linux/unix operating system do you find the most useful, or necessary to have a working knowledge of? I'm going back to school to get a degree in Information Technology, and although it will be about three years before I'm finished and ready to make a career change, I've been wondering what I'll really need to know. The schooling will give me a good foundation, but I've always found that the things you do/use everyday don't always come from a text book or your lecture notes. What are your favorite "tricks of the trade?"
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A question for IT professionals
- Thread starter pejsaboy
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
- Location
- T3h Intr@tub3z!
it is very rare that you will find linux in a business environment aside from it being a server of some sort. So, take the 'learning' you get for a windows environment, and find an equivalent scenario in a linux environment and fiddle with it in your spare time to learn it.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2006
- Location
- South Dakota
It depends on your industry. I work in the film industry and we are almost all linux both front and back end
Scripting is a god sent as is the ability to have bash everywhere
pick up python if you can
Also learn general CLI tools that are standard everwhere
should you be without internet or the programs you are used to are not installed/available this will save your bacon
- Thread Starter
- #4
Is bash not 'standard' issue? I haven't come across any others in my whirlwind affairs with linux, but I'm of course nowhere close to being an expert. Realistically I'm fairly noobish, which is part of the reason for this thread. i can install a system, but since I also use windows I don't have much desire to fiddle with installing any games under linux. I need some more "practical" things to do that will help me become more linux literate. The scripting is a really good suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of that on my own... I love automating stuff 
In addition to bash you should at least be familiar with csh should you run across it. Just the bare minimum you would need to function like seting environment variables etc.
Getting some basic scripting under your belt is probably a good idea. For some practice you could do something like taking a huge log file and practice parsing it for just the bits of information you need. Get some practice with the common command line tools for doing that like cut, grep, cat, sed, find. You should also get familiar with piping and file redirection.
Stratus_ss is right, depending on your industry things could either be 100% windows or 100% linux or somewhere in between. As far as career advice goes I would suggest figuring out what you want to do and then try to specialize in it. You will be more likely to land a job (or a less entry level job) if you have a fair depth of knowledge in one area rather than a little bit in lots of areas. You still need some general across the board knowledge, but it would good to start thinking about a specialization. Two example of people I know: 1 guy does microsoft active directory as 90% of his job and the other 10% is configuring microsoft sql server, another guy configures cisco switches and vm ware as his whole job description.
Getting some basic scripting under your belt is probably a good idea. For some practice you could do something like taking a huge log file and practice parsing it for just the bits of information you need. Get some practice with the common command line tools for doing that like cut, grep, cat, sed, find. You should also get familiar with piping and file redirection.
Stratus_ss is right, depending on your industry things could either be 100% windows or 100% linux or somewhere in between. As far as career advice goes I would suggest figuring out what you want to do and then try to specialize in it. You will be more likely to land a job (or a less entry level job) if you have a fair depth of knowledge in one area rather than a little bit in lots of areas. You still need some general across the board knowledge, but it would good to start thinking about a specialization. Two example of people I know: 1 guy does microsoft active directory as 90% of his job and the other 10% is configuring microsoft sql server, another guy configures cisco switches and vm ware as his whole job description.
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2005
I work in state government. The upper tier of IT guys are about 50/50 MS/Linux. I'm told some of the state's most crucial servers are Linux based. I am an all Microsoft guy for now. I acknowledge and respect Linux, but I admit I am too chicken to try anything with it.
I pondered starting with a Linux+ course sometime. Do you think it's worth it? (I wouldn't be paying for it.)
I pondered starting with a Linux+ course sometime. Do you think it's worth it? (I wouldn't be paying for it.)
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2002
- Location
- Indianapolis, IN
i would definitely get familiar with the command line and basic utilities as others have mentioned. i'd suggest learning how to use grep/egrep, tail, top, ps, kill, scp to name a few. those are ones i use daily.
when it comes to windows vs linux, it depends on what sort of things you are running. at my job, we have coldfusion servers on windows and websphere on linux so we use both. in some cases, we even have some old boxes running solaris 8 and 9 and those only have csh for the shell.
if you really want to learn, make a linux server at home. try to set up multiple websites using host headers using apache, a website that uses php/mysql, create multiple users, etc. try to do this all from the command line and you will find yourself learning a lot. with linux, google is your friend. if you can't figure something out, google it and you will find your answer.
...or you can ask on here if you are really stumped
when it comes to windows vs linux, it depends on what sort of things you are running. at my job, we have coldfusion servers on windows and websphere on linux so we use both. in some cases, we even have some old boxes running solaris 8 and 9 and those only have csh for the shell.
if you really want to learn, make a linux server at home. try to set up multiple websites using host headers using apache, a website that uses php/mysql, create multiple users, etc. try to do this all from the command line and you will find yourself learning a lot. with linux, google is your friend. if you can't figure something out, google it and you will find your answer.
...or you can ask on here if you are really stumped
- Thread Starter
- #8
Do you have a specific way of searching google when you're stuck, mbentley? I haven't been stuck recently, but in the past I've ended up either at a random site that doesn't address my problem aside from mentioning something minorly related, or I end up at ubuntuforums and find nothing related. Google hasn't been good to me in terms of linux help :/
It does definitely depend on the industry. Having seen many setups in the financial sector, it is a 50/50 shot as to what kind of shop it will be. Like others mentioned, command line familiarity is great. Learn to write simple scripts, etc. and you can start to take it from there.
Maybe it is best to define a task (such as setting up a website as mentioned above) and running through it from start to finish.
Maybe it is best to define a task (such as setting up a website as mentioned above) and running through it from start to finish.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2002
- Location
- Indianapolis, IN
I tend to use quotes around error messages or parts of error messages. if I am using debian, I will also look at ubuntu results as the solutions might work for both. a lot of the time, it depends on what I am trying to do. the best way to think about it is to write it your problem in a sentence into google and the focus on some key words.
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2003
You should be able to use a number of basic scripting languages. Definitely bash. sh, csh, ksh (used a lot on some non Linux unix os's), and perl are good to have some knowledge of, although the scripting language of choice varies between companies. At the very least, be very proficient in at least one.
Make sure you understand the basic cli tools like awk, sed, grep, etc., and how to connect them using input and output redirection ( | , < , > , >> , etc).
Learn package management using rpm and deb based managers.
Be comfortable with the common editors, eg emacs, vi, ed, nano, etc.
Understand permissions and masking, 777 vs 755 etc., chmod and chown.
Learn to use the cron.
Maybe GUI stuff, but that depends on your job.
Learn some networking too, like nfs and samba.
Make sure you understand the basic cli tools like awk, sed, grep, etc., and how to connect them using input and output redirection ( | , < , > , >> , etc).
Learn package management using rpm and deb based managers.
Be comfortable with the common editors, eg emacs, vi, ed, nano, etc.
Understand permissions and masking, 777 vs 755 etc., chmod and chown.
Learn to use the cron.
Maybe GUI stuff, but that depends on your job.
Learn some networking too, like nfs and samba.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2006
Previous contract had mostly CentOS that I supported, prior to that Cent and RHEL.
Cygwin for the windows side to communicate across. and CLI on linux for 99% of it. There werent any "programs" that I could really say were used beyond that.
Cygwin for the windows side to communicate across. and CLI on linux for 99% of it. There werent any "programs" that I could really say were used beyond that.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2010
- Location
- Dallas/Fort-Worth
Some light use of bash within an ESX setup, and once for a firewall. That's about it.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
You need marketable skills. Understanding the foundations for why certain technologies work the way they do will help you to make things work the way you want them to - thats the basis for where you are trying to get to.
1. Scripting
2. Administration
Scripting is good advice. Bash/perl/python are places to start to learn and understand Linux scripting. vbscript, wmi, and powershell are places to start to learn and understand Windows scripting. Every administrator I know that is better than me either has years of experience or less experience but better scripting skills.
Administration is another area to develop your experience in. Apache/LAMP/etc, Samba/Storage, IBM Directory Server/Open LDAP - experience with these items touch upon server and network technologies you would need to piece together to run some areas of Linux based infrastructure (server, shared data, directory services). Knowing how to manage a single Windows Server OS (windows 2008 r2 recommended) and its available "roles" gives you a lot on the microsoft side - IIS/File Server/DHCP/DNS/AD - all of what you need to know to run the core of your user infrastructure on Windows. You could also go to the user side of things with desktop administration/support, which is a common entry level position to get your foot in the door - TCPIP/client networking, authentication, application troubleshooting, network rights management.
That's just to touch upon some areas which you can focus on to establish your base - intricate knowledge of certain areas will give you marketable skills, while you build depth and expand in other areas with experience and continued learning. There are a lot of options I skipped - virtualization, database, network/cisco, etc.
1. Scripting
2. Administration
Scripting is good advice. Bash/perl/python are places to start to learn and understand Linux scripting. vbscript, wmi, and powershell are places to start to learn and understand Windows scripting. Every administrator I know that is better than me either has years of experience or less experience but better scripting skills.
Administration is another area to develop your experience in. Apache/LAMP/etc, Samba/Storage, IBM Directory Server/Open LDAP - experience with these items touch upon server and network technologies you would need to piece together to run some areas of Linux based infrastructure (server, shared data, directory services). Knowing how to manage a single Windows Server OS (windows 2008 r2 recommended) and its available "roles" gives you a lot on the microsoft side - IIS/File Server/DHCP/DNS/AD - all of what you need to know to run the core of your user infrastructure on Windows. You could also go to the user side of things with desktop administration/support, which is a common entry level position to get your foot in the door - TCPIP/client networking, authentication, application troubleshooting, network rights management.
That's just to touch upon some areas which you can focus on to establish your base - intricate knowledge of certain areas will give you marketable skills, while you build depth and expand in other areas with experience and continued learning. There are a lot of options I skipped - virtualization, database, network/cisco, etc.
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2001
- Location
- Corona, CA
I work for a small company, 125 or so employees. We were getting tons of spam, so I used a CentOS build with postfix, spam assassin, ClamAV already setup to make a free spam filter. Saved the company 2000-3000$ plus updates over a barracuda filter. I am windows guys and our office is windows. but it was a great experience.
