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What are the list of things I should know to become a system admin
The first step is to decide what direction, you'll wanna go. You can select a target fields where you want to specialize. Look for at wikipedia for a start:
System administrator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That list is always expanding and will never stop growing. Keep learning all the time. That's
my personal list:
- Programming/Scripting: A key for a good SysAdmin is to automate things. Automating means you have to program it to let it happen automatically. Improving programming capabilities is a long term goal.
- Problem solving: Problems will happen always. They may come with or without prior configuration change. Learn what information it needs to support problem solving. E. g. Server performance data. Learn how to get the needed informations using all possible sources(Documentation, Google, Community) You can learn a lot by participating in problem solving in an internet forum with your targeted topic("Red Hat Linux"). That are real world problems. By solving real problems you have to real learn how to use your linux and you will learn greatly if you have solved many problems.
- Keep Learning: Keep learning and trying to understand the things you deal with. New things. Every new part you discover and learn to use will make you more powerful. Many areas of knowledge and experience will return to you on your way. For a start you can set up different types of applications in order to get to know your OS. Install a webserver. A Forum. Owncloud. A mail server. A Backup system. Play with Firewall rules(iptables/nftables).
- Stick to Rock-Solid-OSS Components. Ignore Fancy Interfaces/GUIs: SQL(MySQL/Postgres), LDAP, IMAP(Dovecot), SMTP(Postfix), HTTP(Apache, NGINX).,DNS,DHCP,Xen,OpenSSH,... Robust Open Source technologies will likely have a very broad usage world wide. Knowing them will enable you to get many jobs.
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What are the topics I must know?
- Maybe some good lecture/book about the needed basic qualities of a SysAdmin are good to read. Backup and Recovery as one of the most important task to name it.
- Know your Operating System as mentioned before
- Service maintenance(starting,stopping,configuring,log consultation,writing service files(systemd))
- Shell-Scripting at least at a basic level is obligatory(There may be exceptions).
- Solid Understanding of TCP/IP-Networking
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3. Any tools I should know?
The basic tools of your OS. Nothing more. There are lots of tools available. Learn to find out which tools are available and which one too use with a problem when you are solving it. Learn to read manuals(man pages,...) and learn how to use google if you're not already able to(A lot of people asking questions in forums obviously at least do not make usage of their knowledge how to use google).
There are different ways to go on further. You can practice for yourself or you may try to get a low paid/unpaid internship/hands-on-training for some weeks.
07-12-2016
