It’s a long time since I wanted to start a blog, but for some reason I never got around to do it. I finally convinced myself to allocate a little time for this.
You will find here mostly rants about computer networks and server technologies. I’m not too used to write in complete sentences (I’m more accustomed in the arcane languages of the CLI world) so I hope you will cut me some slack.
Let the rants begin.
Dumitru
Hello mr. sysadmin 🙂
I’m a networking novice (just studying to get my ccna), and i was wondering if you could recommend me some reading material (books, websites etc), so that i can grasp the necessary knowledge as quickly as possible (you know, to be able to “hold my ground” in a technical interview, if opportunity arises). I guess what i’m really asking is: from your personal experience, what tech skills should one work towards acquiring, if the objective is to enter the sysadmin/net admin work fields ? If we’re talking certifications, do you reckon meeting the ccna and rhct requirements would be enough for a first step in those fields ? Is virtualization also necessary ?
Hope you find the time to answer some of my questions 🙂
In my opinion CCNA is a good way to learn the basics in networking (what’s an ip address, what is netmask and what is good for, stuff like that) but only that, just a base to build upon later. Don’t get me wrong _basics_ are really important.
There is no “magic book” to learn fast. The sysadmin and the netadmin domains (yes, they are separate) is becoming so vast that I really don’t know what to recommend. Certifications are ok but try to learn not only _how_ things work but _why_ they work that way. To put it in simple terms, at CCNA courses try not to learn the Cisco CLI but try to comprehend what is happening behind that CLI after you use it, so when you are confronted with equipment from another vendor you will not try to adapt the Cisco CLI to your new device but you will ask yourself what is what you want to accomplish with that device and go straight to the point in that device documentation.
Right now virtualisation is in use everywhere.
The best advice I can think of at this moment:
– for sysadmin get a linux dvd
– for netadmin get gns3
Set yourself some scenarios and try to accomplish them gradually. For example
– for sysadmin: install a linux host with 3 virtual machines. each machine has a different role: webserver, mailserver, database server. set up a small web page. setup a small database, try to interconnect them, etc, etc.
I hope this answers some of your questions.
Dumitru