So I've just been hit up by my recruiter friend and he say he has a good shot at hooking me up with a sysadmin job...

>You can't be proactive if you are a sysadmin since you might not know if something is going to go wrong
True, I was just thinking that at the very least I could put some monitoring scripts together.
>I've had a main server die once
Oof, lol I've heard stories of some 20 year old servers sitting in some closet where people don't know what they do and are too afraid to unplug for fear of fucking up the system

Pretty much nails it on the head.

Honestly, sysadmin is only as difficult as the client makes it for you. Imagine a scenario where you know that your Infrastructure will not be able to handle the tasks being asked of it. In Scenario A, the client acknowledges your concerns and gives you a green light to upgrade items to make compatibility simple.
Scenario B, the client says he has paid X amount of dollars on the system already and does not want to keep flooding money into it, even though your user base load has expanded Y amount since implementation. Scenario A was simple, couple hours of work and your back to watching your shows and playing vidya, Scenario B on the other-hand, now you are frantically trying to get your system to par for a workload it was not designed to handle.
It is a fun career as long as you can handle an instant stress environment with the possibility of very long hours, and being in a committed relationship with your work.

In my experience you will need to use google sometimes because nobody can know everything about every aspect of computing, yet sysadmins are expected to at least be able to know how to diagnose a machine and interrogate hardware and software so that, if necessary, they can save time if they have to call in a specialist. The job isnt about knowing how to fix everything, it's about knowing your limits and saving time and money by getting a job done quickly. Example - back in the day we had a lot of difficulty getting a blackberry server to work on a windows server operating system. We spent a couple of days thinking we could get it working. After that we called in an expert from blackberry to install it for us. Turned out there was an issue with the dll's in the versions of windows OS we were using. That cost us about £4000 GBP but it saved the company and us a lot of time, Each day was costing our company about 2000 and our customers company was losing 10,000 a day.
If we had faffed around for another 2 or 3 days that was no good. The expert had to patch the server using some Research In Motion software not available to the public so we learnt something there but my point is that being a sysadmin is about learning and about applying your knowledge is a cost effective way

install gentoo

>I'm not really sure the full scope of what I would need to do/know.

Backups, maintaining server security, patches, switching out hard drives (making sure those drives are configured correctly in terms of RAID), moving files, spinning up webservers, giving developers more access than they really should have because their code is shit and has to run as administrator, resetting passwords, configuring switches, configuring firewalls, backing up configs, bitching at DNSBL list maintainers to pull your IP off their list because Martha in marketing sent 5000 emails out and management won't spring for Sendgrid, screaming at security vendors for sending out bad virus databases, deploying workstations, talking shit about the Sales department, etc.

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Good to know thanks

Lmaoooo

I've been working in System administration for a few years now. I'll tell you the skills I've used in the last few weeks, it should give you a good idea of what skills you should learn.

PART 1

>People skills
I'm putting this at the top because I consistently see it neglected.
Your job does not start and end at the border of your screen. You WILL be interacting with people, be it the VARs who handle your warranties and licenses, or managers and C-Levels when presenting solutions to corporate problems.
Going over all the different kinds of people and attitudes is beyond this post, but the bottom line is:
Do. Not. Neglect. This.

>Exchange Administration
While I highly doubt they will up and give you full Global Admin to their Exchange platform, They might give you a Limited Admin capable of doing the following:
*Creating Users and Distribution Groups
*Issuing Password resets
*Running Message Traces and releasing emails from the hosted Quarantine.
*Reviewing, and if necessary, altering mail flow rules
While some of these are technically 'helpdesk' duties, servICE administration (as opposed to servER administration) tends to mix backend stuff with tier 2-3 helpdesk.

>Active Directory
A company of any size will have a federated Identity platform, generally Windows AD. I recommend learning the following things:
*How to create and manage users
*How things are organized in ad AD hierarchy
*How Group Policies work
AD is by far the de facto standard for managing damn near everything. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

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Windows and Linux Server Administration
Networking
Virtualization
Powershell scripting is a must
SCCM
Active Directory
Design, develop, and maintain web applications for internal company use (scripting is fine, we don't need full dev)
Deploy, configure, and administer network infrastructure and server infrastructure for application hosting
Manage virtualized platforms for Windows and Linux

We're looking for a sharp, motivated, and talented Systems Administrator to take on a broad slice of our end-user technology environment (things like desktops, telephony, mobile devices, messaging, video conferencing, AV, and more) while expanding into an ever-growing set of back-end systems (physical and virtual servers, networks, and storage). Our dream candidate doesn't need lots of experience but must be a die-hard techie and tinkerer – someone who isn't satisfied just figuring out how something works, but who is consumed with why it works that way.

Responsibilities:
Be the bridge between people and technology by ensuring a seamless, responsive, and proactive user experience
Own build, configuration, problem-solving, troubleshooting, maintenance, and support across end-user technologies
Handle general systems administration across an array of back-end platforms
Participate in new technology selection, testing, and rollouts
Experience:
3+ years of relevant experience
Demonstrated ability to adeptly assess and fix technical problems.
Unambiguous passion for technology.
Programming skills beyond simple scripting are required.
Education:
Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related technical field from an excellent academic program.

So seems like this is something I can do. I'm aware of all the sysadmin concepts but I'll have to do some further research

PART 2

>Linux stuff
>INSTALL GENT-
*SLAP*
NO. SHUT UP.
While Linux is occasionally present in corporate environments, it's generally relegated to either very specific roles, or IT-only software. My workplace uses Linux for an asset tracking program, and a Postfix box that gives our ancient ERP modern email capabilities.
I would recommend learning the following:
*Installing CentOS/Fedora server, and adding a GUI afterwards.
*Deploying Apache
*Deploying various sites to Apache (Owncloud, Dokuwiki, etc.)
*Configuring CentOS to use PHP7+, as it still ships the now EOL 5.6.
*Deploying Postfix, and getting it to send email to your corporate address.
*Make an SMB share
Don't you dare disable SELinux. It's 2019, there are good GUI and CLI tools for managing it. In fact, the GUI tools can do the diagnosis for you, and recommend a fix.

>Scripting and automation
Done right, scripts can be extremely powerful. In fact, I automated myself and 3 others out of an internship for my first job. It was a glorified keyboard/mouse macro, written in python, merely to flip a bit on 10K+ objects in an order management server.
If you ever find yourself needing to do something repetitive and predictable, try writing some PowerShell to do it for you. I recommend the following:
*Variables, ForEach loops
*Don't overuse pipes
*COMMENT YOUR DAMN CODE

PART 3

>Testing and learning
Officially, my workplace doesn't have a test environment. Unofficially, I took a decommissioned VMWare server, and made an "Enterprise in a Box." It's where I do any and all 'mad scientist' stuff that's work-related. I recommend the following:
*Pick a virtualization software (virtualbox, vmware, hyper-v)
*Make a firewall VM (PfSense)
*Add or configure basic IDS/IPS on said VM
*Create a Server 2016 or 2019 VM, and deploy AD to it.
*Create a Windows 10 VM, and add it to the domain.
*Find cool shit to do, and learn to create GPOs to solve problems as you go.
*Read through relevant STIG policies, and try making your environment reasonably compliant.
*Audit your domain. Let's make sure you didn't teach yourself any bad habits. I recommend PingCastle.
Most of the cool shit at my current job came from me asking questions and screwing around. Just remember to only do this during your spare time. The company comes first.

God, that was a lot of writing.

Do not take under $60k for this.

>Don't you dare disable SELinux. It's 2019, there are good GUI and CLI tools for managing it. In fact, the GUI tools can do the diagnosis for you, and recommend a fix.

journalctl is your FRIEND

As a toddler I am lost. Would you fa/g/s have a course/subject sequence in mind to learn systems administration? I mean your recommendations, not a college catalog.

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Thank you user, you can go back to playing vidya and waiting for the next emergency.

Pretty much this

audit2why and audit2allow FTW.

Thanks a ton! I'll def hop on this.

I'm likely looking at around $90k to start

>I'm likely looking at around $90k to start

Good job, that's way more than I got paid at my first gig, doing a lot more than you'll be doing.

Guess I should have went to college and made friends.

Maybe... It is an investment firm in New York though. Every junior job here is generally around that range. Mid range you can see 150k, seniors 200k, quants 300-400k, etc.

And even then those numbers can go way higher. A lot of what I've seen just depends on what market you get into

oh yeah 90k in NY is lower end, so that's about right

good luck man- I'll give you one last piece of advice

NEVER get tied to any particular product or "way of doing things". You're ultimately there to move bits back and forth in the most efficient manner possible, and there are going to be constraints on that, just don't add any extra constraints in your head.

Be it brand loyalty, comfortability with a particular language, or way of doing things, I've seen a lot of people specialize too much and then when their piece of tech falls out of fashion or favor, they feel lost and have trouble finding or keeping a position.

Always be open to learning the best way to do something, even if it seems scary at first.

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>working for a big school district
>last senior guy that got hired started making real changes and basically ripped the bandaid off shit off our bodged network
>he gets shitcanned a couple months after saving everything because he rubbed the wrong shoulders and had a couple hours of downtime
the legend

Right on thanks. Being adaptable is something I pride myself on

It honestly hurts me to hear stuff like this. This probably happens pretty often

>While Linux is occasionally present in corporate environments, it's generally relegated to either very specific roles, or IT-only software.
The retail store I work at runs their computers on Linux.

That seems pretty naive. I don't know if you're aware, but even over-engineered networks have a chance of blowing up under certain circumstances. There's no avoiding risk entirely - and that's a lesson you'd better learn early on. The largest companies that have the largest budgets relative to service utilization still have unscheduled outages.

I'll try and explain partially why, but I'm simply not able to cover everything because the stack is too large. Stack you say? What's that? It's the steaming pile of shit that all our modern technology is built on. It's the shit you don't see. It's the shit that's abstracted away, the stuff you never have to think about that occurs under the hood. The shit Dennis Ritchie doesn't even dream of (but software bugs, even those stemming from software that software is built on can be a big frustration). I'm talking about everything up from the theory of electricity, laws of thermodynamics, right up to what we call the "seventh layer" but really it's an infinite layer. I probably sound like some crazy person but your comment really pissed me off. You can't just not let things go to shit, because things will go to shit whether you want them too or not. The complexity of the problem is too great for anyone to understand. You might hold the thought that you'll not let things go to shit, you might co locate your equipment or use the cloud, or maybe you have a super solid on prem deployment. Either way, A/C will fail, power will be lost, fiber optic lines will be dug up by a back hoe, and your network will go down, maybe your databases got corrupted. Guess who the entire company is going to be looking at? You. It's showtime baby. The whole company is losing money until you get shit fixed. And maybe that takes working 15+ hour days for over a week, including weekends, especially in total meltdown situations.

Bump

Looking to get into Sysadmin type of career and was told I should study for the RHCSA to get my foot into the door. Thoughts on this?

this is why you design your shit to be as minimalist as possible, so when the inevitable shitstorm happens you aren't dead in the water beholden to some other company for a crypto key or authorization or a subscription service

true minimalism is impractical but that doesn't mean that i don't look at a computer lab full of thin client terminals and wonder how it all went wrong

>SELinux
But user, I can't even SELinux. Can't I use Apparmor? ;-;

It's not as hard as you think it is. Rather, most sites do a crap job of explaining the basics.
I recommend Dan Walsh's 2012 "SELinux for Mere Mortals" video:
youtube.com/watch?v=MxjenQ31b70

> NO. SHUT UP.
> While Linux is occasionally present in corporate environments
It's probably US-specific, like cards w/magnet stripe. Who uses Windows for anything else than workstations or AD, haha.

I don't think you get it. Listen bud, you can use a fucking abacus and shit can still break.

Can't you say the phrase "have you turned it off and back on again?" if so you should be fine.

That's a helpdesk saying, not a sysadmin saying.

That's fine, I am expecting things to go to shit but that doesn't mean I won't try to not let them go to shit

Do Sys Admins get pussy? thats the red pill question.

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What kind of certs are essential for the career? Just CCNA?

Done a 4 year course sysadmin, blew through it in 2.
It's no big deal, a lot of it is indeed google-fu.
Tasks can vary extremely depending on the company.

e.g. At smaller places you're helpdesk, sysadmin and then some more.
Expect to get asked to fix the coffeemachine too. Or anything else with a powerplug for that matter

In larger companies you have the Level 1 and Level 2 helpdesk doing the shitty stuff for you.
With your time mostly going to implementing new infrastructure, both software/hardware.

>Frankly my assumption is just that i'll google everything I might need to know when I'm there
Welcome to the working world phamalama. Try slashdot or stackexchange over google tho.

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You'll basically be a supercharged help desk monkey.

Just update Adobe reader on people's computers.

>get paid to do nothing

This is my dream job.

I just flunked out of college for CS
What steps can I take now to become a sysadmin

No. Try Fedora or CentOS for a system that is actually deployed. Gentoo is to build a customized system that otherwise wouldn't run in the architecture you desire.

become a Contractor nigger for data centers and work your way up.

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So this is just is just an update but I took a technical test for the job. I had to write a powershell script. It was simple enough, only one problem. I didn't have the AD module for powershell on my computer so I couldn't use get-help to figure out how to filter groups by "managedBy". Time ran out before I could google it. Oh well. Thanks everybody who gave me advice anyway