Yes, time is of the essence... I can't really imagine a training class that would teach enough relevant stuff at the right pace--there are so many facets to Linux / FreeBSD / Solaris / etc., and then substantial differences even within Linux distributions.
For example, I used to spend all my time in Red Hat / CentOS land, and every time I deal with a Debian system like Ubuntu, it feels like everything in /etc is in the wrong place, the software package manager is different, and especially the startup scripts operate in an almost totally different fashion. Never mind hopping over to Solaris or HPUX... those are systems I can use, but wouldn't care to run. Among other things, you may need to learn a long list of tools to work effectively like: less, vi, awk, sed, cut, head, tail, iptables, ssh and sshd, rsync, bash / zsh generally, find, xargs, and more; general things like piping and redirection, the structure of the filesystem, runlevels, troubleshooting, various scripting languages, X, the list goes on and on... it takes years to become a really proficient UNIX-head. I think what you want to do is, find the right place to start that's relevant to what you want to do with the system, and move at your own pace. --Steve On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 3:50 PM, Stephen Wimberly > <[email protected]> wrote: >> What training would you request from an employer that >> wants me to branch out into Unix support? > > That depends on what kind of training works best for you. (And > maybe the flavor of *nix.) I would certainly sit down with a test > PC (or virtual machine), install a popular distro, and start playing. > But without some accompanying learning resources, your learning won't > be very efficient. > > For example, if you like books, I can recommend /The UNIX and Linux > System Administration Handbook/, by Nemeth, et. al. Very good, very > practical, very accessible. There's also /Linux for Windows > Administrators/, by Minasi, et. al. It's a bit dated, and I wouldn't > consider it a replacement for USAH, but it's a good companion. > > If you prefer online resources, you're in luck: There are many. Too > many, possibly. The Linux Documentation Project (http://tldp.org/) is > a good place to start. There are many HOWTO's that cover things at a > detailed level. And they're free. > > If you like in-person classes, that's harder, since local is usually > more convenient, and I don't know where you are. > > The one bit of universal advice I can give you is: Make sure your > employer is budgeting you *time* to do your learning. No amount of > money or resources will substitute. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
