I want to become System Administrator. Where to start?

[shone32]

Hello guys (and girls), I've been watching LTT for past 2 years but never was here on forums, so if this is not where I should've posted, I'm sorry. (Hopefully somebody will move it)

Alright, I attend the High School of Electrical Engineering (System Administration course ? - not sure if that's how you call it) here in Serbia. System administration is looking pretty good from my perspective (I'm having fun discovering Linux, etc.). The giant thing is that our school programs are old and outdated (we learn to make websites in Dreamweaver CS3 - sites that look like they're from 2000s, work on Windows Servers 2003 etc.) and I'm not sure that is good enough. That's why I'm here, I was looking if somebody can tell me what is the good place the start. Perhaps, maybe someone can recommend me some books or something like that. I prefer if I can have some media (book, course...) that I can follow, and not to do everything on my own (in context of going and discovering settings etc.). Thanks for reading !  

[charlie_root]

Don't worry too much about the educational background. I don't know of any curriculum that really prepares students for this. Most of what makes you employable as a sysadmin is stuff you can learn only through doing it.

 

I would advise to start with running Linux and BSD. Get an old laptop or desktop, pick an OS, and install it. Don't use the GUI for everything; you will need to have a good comfort level with the command line. Then, try another. Branch out from Linux too and try the BSDs.

 

Then, learn about networking. The Cisco CCENT (and when you're ready, the CCNA) certification is a good thing to have and will expose you to the basics. Maybe build a router out of OpenBSD and an old desktop (there are guides online for this).

 

As you do this, you will see tasks that are tedious. That's where shell scripting comes in. Write some simple scripts to automate what you need. Then branch out into full fledged configuration management like Puppet, Ansible, etc. Make sure you create a Github profile and put anything useful you write on there; this is evidence so that employers can see you know how to do things.

 

Being a sysadmin is part networking, part hardware, part OS knowledge, part programming, and all problem solving. The more practice you get in each area, the more prepared you will be.

[Orange1]

You start by getting the requirements to enter the course in Univ/College

You start by flipping burgers to get a work ethic category in your resume so you can get hired in 3 or 4 years however long your HS is, however long post 2ndary is.

[imreloadin]

One word, homelab. Literally just get a small network set up and experiment with things like virtualization, scripting, and automation software like ansible/chef/puppet. Show you have a passion for the material and just have fun with it. College programs like Electrical Engineering teach you to be an Electrical Engineer. See if they have an Information Technology degree that you can pursue because that'll be more advantageous for you for starting off as a Junior Sys Admin than an EE degree. The degree gets you an interview, the homelab is what sets you apart from the crowd and gives you real world experience with what is actually done. Tell them your stories about how you broke things and then how you fixed them. Show a willingness to learn and you'll be golden.

[The_russian]

2 hours ago, jsf said:

Then, learn about networking. The Cisco CCENT (and when you're ready, the CCNA) certification is a good thing to have and will expose you to the basics.

You made good suggestions in general, just a correction on this part. Starting earlier this year Cisco completely revamped their certification track. There is no longer a CCENT and there is now just one general CCNA as apposed to before when there were multiple specialized ones.

[charlie_root]

Just now, The_russian said:

You made good suggestions in general, just a correction on this part. Starting earlier this year Cisco completely revamped their certification track. There is no longer a CCENT and there is now just one general CCNA as apposed to before when there were multiple specialized ones.

Thanks, didn't know that.

[shone32]

Thanks guys a lot for this. My friend just gave me this book: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Complete-Reference-Richard-Petersen/dp/007149247X. Is it okay to start by reading it to get familiar with Linux (I already set up Ubuntu Linux to my PC few days ago)

@The_russian @jsf 

@imreloadin - btw what does your first reply mean?

[charlie_root]

Sure of course it's okay. Practice is key. The best way is to decide on a goal, and then look up what you need to accomplish it. For example, try hosting a simple html website on your home network. The actual web page doesn't matter here; it's mainly just to get used to configuring a web server like nginx or Apache, and getting the firewall config correct. You'll end up learning how to configure a web server, how to start/stop/enable services, and how to adjust firewall rules--all basic building blocks of sysadmin work.

[Orange1]

Setup a homelab in your abode, wont give you no certificates or diploma but its self learning to get over the learning curve.