=== AndrewMC` is now known as AndrewMC === moru is now known as Guest79900 [06:10] how to install olat on ubuntu [06:11] Guest79900: this is not a regular support channel. join #ubuntu and ask there [06:11] ok, thanks === ikonia_ is now known as ikonia === medberry is now known as med_out === jemparing_ is now known as jemparing === 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 [16:01] Logs 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] Hi everyone, welcome to Ubuntu Women Career Days! [16:02] My 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 Administrator [16:02] Ubuntu 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 opportunities [16:02] That said, you don't need to be a woman to attend or participate in these sessions, everyone is welcome :) [16:03] We hope to have these about once a month, more details can be found at http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/CareerDays [16:03] If you have any questions during the session, please ask them in #ubuntu-classroom-chat by using the syntax: [16:03] QUESTION: Do you like cookies? [16:03] The ClassBot will pick up your question and will post it in this channel when I'm ready for it [16:04] I'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] Let's get started! [16:04] So, at the most basic level, what does a Systems Administrator do? [16:04] We install, secure, maintain and upgrade servers. [16:05] Many of us work with customers (or fellow employees within a company) via phone, email or a ticketing system to handle service and support requests. [16:06] A 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] Typically 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. [16:07] A 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] http://www.sage.org/field/jobs-descriptions.html [16:07] As 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. [16:08] Any questions so far? [16:09] OK, so what kind of training does a sysadmin need? [16:09] I 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] There 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 certifications [16:10] There are Ubuntu training opportunities, more details can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/training [16:10] A Computer Science degree can certainly be useful in a job as a sysadmin since core systems knowledge and programming comes in handy [16:11] Keeping 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 using [16:12] There 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] Any questions? [16:15] So, how did I become a sysadmin? [16:15] I 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. [16:16] Through 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!) [16:17] In 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. [16:18] I 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] In early 2007 I was hired full time as a Junior Systems Administrator. [16:18] At 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. [16:19] Learning 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) [16:20] I 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 warnings [16:20] On a day to day basis I may find myself working on the following: [16:21] * Remote installation of servers (Debian makes this so easy over ssh!) [16:21] * Configuration of firewalls, mailservers, webservers, monitoring, content filtering systems and high-availablity (HA) virtualized clusters [16:21] * Maintenance, including routine security updates and release upgrades [16:21] * Handling of customer requests via ticketing system, email and phone [16:22] * Content and services migrations [16:22] * Network debugging [16:22] * Emergency restoration of services and servers [16:22] * Specing out hardware and new software tools for new projects [16:23] On 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 tasks [16:24] On 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 restoration [16:25] That's pretty much it :) [16:26] Now for that generous Q&A part, hopefully some people have some questions! [16:26] jsjgruber_lrnd_o asked: Are the sites you administer local to you? [16:26] great question! [16:26] actually, none of the servers I administer are local to me [16:27] the 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 Francisco [16:28] however, 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 racks [16:28] we still have junior level folks doing this, so now I don't have to :) [16:30] I'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.com [16:32] IdleOne 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] Yep, all self taught, I actually didn't go to college/university at all [16:33] I 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 computers [16:33] I also don't hold any certifications, and a lot of sysadmins do [16:34] I'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) [16:35] and 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 wise [16:36] more questions? :) [16:37] ah, it's probably good to point out that Linux is an awesome way to get into being a sysadmin [16:38] you 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 server [16:38] all without paying a dime in licensing fees [16:39] the 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] plus, there are Linux sysadmin jobs everywhere these days :) [16:42] nigelb asked: Do you have thoughts for resources for people who want to learn most things needed in a sysadmin job? [16:42] that's a really interesting question [16:43] I'd start with the basic SAGE guidelines so you have a good idea about the skills expected [16:43] but there isn't any real "all the stuff you should know as a sysadmin" document out there [16:44] since 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 wiki [16:45] however, there are some books that I've found super useful for sysadmin theory [16:45] O'Reilly has an "Essential System Administration" book and "Time Management for System Administrators" [16:45] both enjoy a nice spot on my bookshelf :) [16:46] IdleOne 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] good question :) [16:46] I'd say... about 40 times a day [16:46] ok, maybe less, but a sysadmin is pretty much learning all the time [16:47] technologies change rapidly, the open source tools available are ever-expanding and the needs of customers change over time [16:48] now 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 much [16:49] but 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 it [16:50] There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:51] nigelb asked: Any anecdotes you wanna share from your years of experience [16:51] hmm, I'm sure there are some... [16:53] I'd say times when we can really show off the flexibility of Linux to customers are the most satisfying and amusing [16:53] we'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 that [16:54] being 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] oh, I have a good Ubuntu story! [16:55] we have a customer who we've been running Debian servers for for years (firewall, VPN, mailserver, webserver) [16:55] one day the owner of the company emails me and asks: "What are good backup solutions for Ubuntu?" [16:55] There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session. [16:55] Ubuntu? Are they using Ubuntu somewhere? We don't have Ubuntu servers... [16:56] turns 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] was pretty inspiring :) [16:59] our time is just about up, thanks for coming! [16:59] and feel free to drop me an email (lyz@ubuntu.com) or grab me on irc if you have more questions :) [17:00] Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/09/17/%23ubuntu-classroom.html === 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 || === bulldog98_ is now known as bulldog98 [20:48] hello