UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello.,

I am relatively new to UNIX and to this forum, (I have trolled a while...) so I have a few questions. A family member works for Network Appliance, and I get old machines from liquidation, etc. He has been pushing for me to learn UNIX for quite some time. Recently I have taken his advice. I have a Windows machine, 2 Sparc 5's, a Sparc 10, (both have Solaris 7, I believe) and soon to have a NetApp filer. The Sparc 10 has a blown port so I use a serial connection with Terra Term Pro. I have not networked them yet. (but plan to, once I decide what I want my end result to be.)

My question to the forum is this: What could I do with all these machines? What basic, intermediate, commands and scripts could I focus on, to set me on a path to a nice niche job market? As a former techie from the Windows world, I have found that it doesn't really pay off to know a little about a lot. This family member is pushing for crash dump analysis. What is the opinion of some real UNIX users, rather than the biased single voice I have been hearing?

Thanks in advance,

Dana919

since you have sparc machines with solaris installed you can start learning unix command, online unix command are available on the web, man pages on the unix machine is helpfull, reading this unix forum. this book is good "Unix System Administration Handbook"

start from basic unix command such as setting up users, permissions, ownership of files then work your way setting up unix network, sharing folder using NFS and try get some handson at work.

Analysing crash dump is for the Advanced Adminstrator