On 7/27/11 10:50 AM, Nick Anderson wrote:
On 07/27/2011 08:39 AM, Gilbert Wilson wrote:
On Jul 26, 2011, at 1:08 PM, Nick Anderson wrote:
On 07/26/2011 12:05 PM, apostolos pantazis wrote:
All, I am looking for someone that has any knowledge of a
outfit/company etc that offers a good training curriculum on
Apache to send a few Sys admins to. I have done a bunch of
looking around and I got a few leads that I am investigating but
nothing I really Like.
if anyone has any information I would appreciate the feedback
Its not a training class, but don't neglect the LOPSA Mentorship
Program.
Another alternative (thinking a little outside the box).
Instead of paying someone to sit in front of a projector and lead
your sysadmins through configuration files, how about "locking" your
sysadmins in a room away from the company for a few days with some
specific objectives. Initially, make the objective to build a LAMP
stack that hosts a fake website capable of meeting certain load
metrics. Then, change/update the server in ways that mimic your
environment's setup/needs. Provide them with manual references
and/or favorite Apache books to help them along the way. Use
something like Linode to get them up-and-running quickly.
You could have a lot of fun putting together a mini-wargame to help
them learn Apache and they're more likely to retain what they learn.
This could be a good opportunity to re-inforce the importance of
documentation and after-action reports, too.
That sounds like a fun idea
Comments on two parts of that.
Any computer sysadmin type class that just consists of pure lecture with a projector is very close
to being a waste of time. It should be a room full of computers with time split between talking and
doing. Classes I took at Learning Tree (http://www.learningtree.com) ten years ago were like that.
We had PCs that were dual boot RH Linux and Solaris. They would talk about something for half an
hour, and then we would have half an hour to complete an assignment. Repeat. Continue for 4 days.
The hands on experience is indispensable and leads to further questions and answers that enrich the
learning. One class on Unix security turned the classroom into a battle scene with everyone trying
to hack everyone else while simultaneously trying to close off your own vulnerabilities and block
others from hacking you. Cheers and groans when someone got nailed.
Going back a bit further, I participated in a day long workshop in Boston put on by Cayman Systems
in the early '90's dealing with cross platform networking. They grouped us together so that we had
one Windows admin, one Unix admin, and one Mac admin in each group. They would lecture at us about
some issues for a while, and then they would send us into a side room where there was a network
setup that was botched. We had to figure it out. The Windows guy would point at the Mac guy and say,
"it's your system", and so on. But we had to work together. The team that came out first with their
solution got a significant prize. In one case, the problem turned out to be a mis-configured HP
printer that was borking one of the other computers. But there might be mis-wired cables or
mis-configured routers or whatever.
In both cases, having someone (or a team) leading the process who really really knows their stuff
and is good at coordinating and setting things up is crucial. Otherwise, I might as well just be
doing self paced stuff at my own desk, reading manuals, or whatever. I do that all the time. What
you want is to accelerate that process and catalyze a serous shift in the speed and
comprehensiveness of the learning, and you want to cement it with hands on experience.
--
---------------
Chris Hoogendyk
-
O__ ---- Systems Administrator
c/ /'_ --- Biology& Geology Departments
(*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<[email protected]>
---------------
Erdös 4
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