> So let's say I want to geek up and earn some serious > dollars in the process. What sort of opportunities > are available out there for people with Solaris > expertise? For example, what are the sort of > environments where people with this knowledge would > be in demand - ie. where should I be looking?
Any mid-size to large company is almost guaranteed to have Solaris running. Often one will find these are core systems, mission critical for business. As a friend of mine said a long time ago: Solaris is for making money. You'll find Solaris running behind the scenes in insurance companies, banks, software companies, hospitals, government agencies, and increasingly at "Web 2.0" companies. In other words: just about everywhere and anywhere. > Also, what level of expertise should I be aiming at > for the above in-demand roles? What aspects of the OS > do I need bulletproof knowledge of? I'm not stupid, > but UNIX is still very new to me, things like shell > scripting I have next to zero knowledge of. I can > find my way around via CLI okay, but still have a > preference for a GUI when available :-p Well, it all depends on you, and how much in depth you really want to go, doesn't it? The deeper you go, and this is true of any discipline, the better you become and correspondingly, the better your compensation... which in case of UNIX people, can be significant. To get a relatively good understanding of UNIX, the following disciplines are essential (there is no way around it): - excellent development / programming skills (needed for the next point) - through understanding of shell scripting, as well as various shells, their strengths and their weaknesses - excellent understanding of regular expressions: no UNIX sysadmin is complete without having mastered regexes - thorough understanding of how the linker (ld), the runtime linker (rld, ld.so.1) works, how to link and how to compile properly Additionally, specific to Solaris, you will need to master: - System V packaging: maintaining software, as well as creating your own packages - JumpStart(TM), Flash(TM) and DHCP technologies: no Solaris admin is complete without having mastered those - NFS and the AutoMounter facility - ZFS - SVM (Sun Volume Manager) There are yet more, not essential, but subtle: - IPMP and MPxIO > Should I do training or obtain certification? Both. > What's > the best way to learn "it" - maybe attach myself to a > casual project and work "for free" for a bit? The best way to learn is to implement a network of UNIX systems at home. Go through all the chapters on system administration on docs.sun.com. And if you can afford it, take the official Solaris Sysadmin I and II courses. > Any advice would be grand...I guess I'm throwing > myself in the deep end, but really do need a change > of scene...and hopefully a healthier salary > eventually!! Just bear one thing in mind: to truly master UNIX system administration, one must be a phenomenal developer; and to be a truly phenomenal developer, one must be a phenomenal sysadmin. They go hand in hand, those two, and they lead to the path of system engineering. This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
