/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/17/#ubuntu-classroom.txt

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Guest79900 how to install olat on ubuntu06:10
chattrGuest79900: this is not a regular support channel.  join #ubuntu and ask there06:11
Guest79900ok, thanks06:11
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=== ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Current Session: Ubuntu Women Career Days: Systems Administrator - Instructors: pleia2
ClassBotLogs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/17/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.16:01
pleia2Hi everyone, welcome to Ubuntu Women Career Days!16:01
pleia2My name is Elizabeth Krumbach and I volunteered to launch this series of days by talking about my day job as a Debian and Ubuntu Systems Administrator16:02
pleia2Ubuntu Women Career Days is the brain child of Cheri703 who was inspired by her own experiences in tech and studies which continue to show that women lack female role models and exposure to tech career opportunities16:02
pleia2That said, you don't need to be a woman to attend or participate in these sessions, everyone is welcome :)16:02
pleia2We hope to have these about once a month, more details can be found at http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/CareerDays16:03
pleia2If you have any questions during the session, please ask them in #ubuntu-classroom-chat by using the syntax:16:03
pleia2QUESTION: Do you like cookies?16:03
pleia2The ClassBot will pick up your question and will post it in this channel when I'm ready for it16:03
pleia2I'll be covering the basics of what a generalist Linux sysadmin does and what training and experience required. I'll then give a bit of history about how I became a sysadmin and what I do on a day to day basis. The session will wrap up with a generous Q&A session.16:04
pleia2Let's get started!16:04
pleia2So, at the most basic level, what does a Systems Administrator do?16:04
pleia2We install, secure, maintain and upgrade servers.16:04
pleia2Many of us work with customers (or fellow employees within a company) via phone, email or a ticketing system to handle service and support requests.16:05
pleia2A sysadmin may be called upon to help select and provision hardware, or work with peers and management to engineer solutions to computing problems or changing expectations within a company.16:06
pleia2Typically sysadmins don't need strong programming skills, but when you're working with Linux a lot of tasks will be scripted in bash or Perl (and increasingly Python) so you will be expected to read, improve upon and write scripts as needed to complete tasks efficiently.16:06
pleia2A more bullet-point and levels ranking look at what sysadmins do can be found on SAGE's (USENIX Special Interest Group for Sysadmins) "Core Job Descriptions" document:16:07
pleia2http://www.sage.org/field/jobs-descriptions.html16:07
pleia2As you can see this describes four levels of Systems Administrators and gives some really great descriptions of skills, responsibilities and time expected to be invested in each level.16:07
pleia2Any questions so far?16:08
pleia2OK, so what kind of training does a sysadmin need?16:09
pleia2I work with a large number of self-taught sysadmins who started off as Linux hobbyists and eventually realized that they could get paid by doing the same work that they do for fun!16:09
pleia2There are also several certifications now available for folks looking to learn the basics in a quicker, more structured way and have something to show for it, including the LPI and various levels of Red Hat certifications16:09
pleia2There are Ubuntu training opportunities, more details can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/training16:10
pleia2A Computer Science degree can certainly be useful in a job as a sysadmin since core systems knowledge and programming comes in handy16:10
pleia2Keeping up with the latest changes and important developments in the core systems you're using is also vital, which I do by reading Linux blogs, subscribing to Linux magazines and frequently talking with fellow sysadmins about the latest tools they're using16:11
pleia2There are also conferences geared toward sysadmins, frequently you can find talks at Linux Users Groups that can be informative and specialized groups also exist in some areas for certain applications (I attend a local MySQL meetup from time to time)16:12
pleia2Any questions?16:12
pleia2So, how did I become a sysadmin?16:15
pleia2I was self-taught and was using Linux as a hobbiest starting in 2002 and immediately began attending Philadelphia Linux User Group (PLUG) meetings. In 2003 I helped found PhillyChix, the Philadelphia chapter of Linux Chix.16:15
pleia2Through 2006 I worked as a contract web developer, for various temp services unrelated to tech and finally in an accounting department. Throughout this time I spent my free time tinkering with Debian and related distributions (and discovered Ubuntu!)16:16
pleia2In 2006 I began working on a contract basis for a company owned by a member of PLUG. In this capacity I was primarily doing on-site installs where I'd meet up with customers and install Debian on a "new" server.16:17
pleia2I say "new" because these servers were rarely new, we work with a lot of non-profits and in general Linux can be used in places where the latest enterprise OS of other types won't run fast enough, so it's not uncommon for us to get servers that are now "too slow for Windows"16:18
pleia2In early 2007 I was hired full time as a Junior Systems Administrator.16:18
pleia2At this job I was given the opportunity to work with a Senior Sysadmin who was also a Debian Developer, which got me in to packaging for Debian since we were using some tools that weren't yet in Debian.16:18
pleia2Learning on the job has been key for me and at this point I'd classify myself as a Level 3 sysadmin, by SAGE guidelines (that link I shared earlier: http://www.sage.org/field/jobs-descriptions.html)16:19
pleia2I start each day by checking email, which will inevitably contain customer requests carried into my shift, monitoring alerts from servers having problems, and log messages collected on an hourly basis from servers with unsual warnings16:20
pleia2On a day to day basis I may find myself working on the following:16:20
pleia2 * Remote installation of servers (Debian makes this so easy over ssh!)16:21
pleia2 * Configuration of firewalls, mailservers, webservers, monitoring, content filtering systems and high-availablity (HA) virtualized clusters16:21
pleia2 * Maintenance, including routine security updates and release upgrades16:21
pleia2 * Handling of customer requests via ticketing system, email and phone16:21
pleia2 * Content and services migrations16:22
pleia2 * Network debugging16:22
pleia2 * Emergency restoration of services and servers16:22
pleia2 * Specing out hardware and new software tools for new projects16:22
pleia2On a typical good day I may find myself spending about half my day on planned projects and the other half handling customer requests, alerts and related, unplanned tasks16:23
pleia2On a really good day I may get a full 6 hours of planned project work done, and on a really bad day when one of our customers has a massive server failure I may lose that whole day (and sometimes part of the next day!) working on restoration16:24
pleia2That's pretty much it :)16:25
pleia2Now for that generous Q&A part, hopefully some people have some questions!16:26
ClassBotjsjgruber_lrnd_o asked: ​ Are the sites you administer local to you?16:26
pleia2great question!16:26
pleia2actually, none of the servers I administer are local to me16:26
pleia2the company I work for is based out of Philadelphia, and last year I moved across the country and kept my same job, so I'm still administering those same servers from San Francisco16:27
pleia2however, it's worth noting that earlier in my career this wouldn't have been possible, when I started out I was sent on site pretty often to pull and put servers in racks16:28
pleia2we still have junior level folks doing this, so now I don't have to :)16:28
pleia2I'll mention now for folks reading the logs (hello!), I'd also be happy to answer questions via email too if you are curious about something and couldn't attend today: lyz@ubuntu.com16:30
ClassBotIdleOne asked: You describe yourself as self thought. I assume you mean you didn't have any formal schooling, are most sysadmins self thought?16:32
pleia2Yep, all self taught, I actually didn't go to college/university at all16:32
pleia2I think I might be somewhat unusual in that I didn't go at all, I bump into sysadmins all the time who went to school but didn't major in anything related to computers16:33
pleia2I also don't hold any certifications, and a lot of sysadmins do16:33
pleia2I'd say the reason this is possible is that syadmining is a difficult thing to teach, I'm not aware of any degrees you can get in the field for being a sysadmin specifically (there are certainly classes that can help though)16:34
pleia2and experience is really key, you can memorize all you want, but until you really get your hands dirty by handling servers, working with customers and getting real world experience with how environments perform it's hard to really hard to advance career level wise16:35
pleia2more questions? :)16:36
pleia2ah, it's probably good to point out that Linux is an awesome way to get into being a sysadmin16:37
pleia2you can cobble together some old systems and install Linux on them as many times as you want, build your own cluster in your living room, run your own mail or web server16:38
pleia2all without paying a dime in licensing fees16:38
pleia2the hardware may be free too, just yesterday I realized that one of our Xen servers at work is still running on a Pentium 3!16:39
pleia2plus, there are Linux sysadmin jobs everywhere these days :)16:39
ClassBotnigelb asked: Do you have thoughts for resources for people who want to learn most things needed in a sysadmin job?16:42
pleia2that's a really interesting question16:42
pleia2I'd start with the basic SAGE guidelines so you have a good idea about the skills expected16:43
pleia2but there isn't any real "all the stuff you should know as a sysadmin" document out there16:43
pleia2since sysadmins work on "anything that will run on a server" I find that the most valuable learning tools are scattered all over the internet in the form of how-tos for mysql, configuation documents for drbd, grub2 instructions on the ubuntu help wiki16:44
pleia2however, there are some books that I've found super useful for sysadmin theory16:45
pleia2O'Reilly has an "Essential System Administration" book and "Time Management for System Administrators"16:45
pleia2both enjoy a nice spot on my bookshelf :)16:45
ClassBotIdleOne asked: How often do you find yourself doing research on how to do something a client has asked? I mean do you still learn new things or have you got it all?16:46
pleia2good question :)16:46
pleia2I'd say... about 40 times a day16:46
pleia2ok, maybe less, but a sysadmin is pretty much learning all the time16:46
pleia2technologies change rapidly, the open source tools available are ever-expanding and the needs of customers change over time16:47
pleia2now there are key concepts that you have to understand and don't change, how DNS works, how email works, how system calls work, how basic networking flows work, and those don't change much16:48
pleia2but I hear new ideas and requests from customers all the time, and I'm fortunate to work with some customers who are clueful about open source so they'll approach us with "can we use this foss tool?" and we'll have the job of evaluating it16:49
ClassBotThere are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.16:50
ClassBotnigelb asked: Any anecdotes you wanna share from your years of experience16:51
pleia2hmm, I'm sure there are some...16:51
pleia2I'd say times when we can really show off the flexibility of Linux to customers are the most satisfying and amusing16:53
pleia2we've moved disks into completely different hardware and had it boot and run for another 5 years without a problem, people are often stunned about that16:53
pleia2being able to quickly move data and services around, the shock that comes when we tell customers how much the license for the high-availability cluster we're building costs (nothing!)16:54
pleia2oh, I have a good Ubuntu story!16:54
pleia2we have a customer who we've been running Debian servers for for years (firewall, VPN, mailserver, webserver)16:55
pleia2one day the owner of the company emails me and asks: "What are good backup solutions for Ubuntu?"16:55
ClassBotThere are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.16:55
pleia2Ubuntu? Are they using Ubuntu somewhere? We don't have Ubuntu servers...16:55
pleia2turns out that 6 months before they had replaced all their Windows PCs in their office with Ubuntu, without even telling us! Or asking us for help!16:56
pleia2was pretty inspiring :)16:56
pleia2our time is just about up, thanks for coming!16:59
pleia2and feel free to drop me an email (lyz@ubuntu.com) or grab me on irc if you have more questions :)16:59
ClassBotLogs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/17/%23ubuntu-classroom.html17:00
=== ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat ||
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