In July 2017, I attended the Red Hat Systems Administration I training to further my system administration (SA) knowledge and skills.
This training is the first of a two-course series that aims to turn a computer professional who knows nothing about the Linux operating system (or someone who just needs a refresher) into a fully-capable Linux SA.
This course is built around Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. It focuses on providing attendees with Linux administration ‘survival skills’ by encouraging them to focus on core administration tasks.
Course Prerequisites
Having previous Linux operating system experience would be beneficial, but there are ultimately no prerequisites required to take the course. The class is taught at a beginner level, so if you are new to SA work, important concepts will be covered without you missing anything. Red Hat’s System Administration I course provides a foundation and introduces key command-line concepts along with other enterprise-level tools.
General Course Info
The class I attended was an in-person, in-class training; however, if you can’t make in-person training, there are other training methods available.
The class took place at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) training center in Columbia, Maryland. Our instructor was an experienced system administrator, who provided the class with detailed instructions and lectured on how to accomplish certain SA tasks in the Linux environment. The class was for one week, 8 hours a day, with an hour lunch break.
Course Structure
The format of the class was all hands-on and real-time exercises to see your results in the environment. The classroom was set up with workstations that had virtual machines loaded to perform the functions and follow along with the instructor.
Each student was provided a student workbook that consisted of modules and actual command prompt exercises to expedite by either following the instructions and copying the commands provided to execute; or give it a try on your own and execute without the commands being provided and just follow the instructions on what needed to be done.
Due to the training covering an extensive amount of material, no homework was given to the students; however, there was enough break time to go back over previous lessons and ask questions for additional help and understanding.
Topics Covered Include:
- introduction to the command line
- accessing the command line
- managing files from the command line
- managing physical storage
- creating, viewing, and editing text files
- how to install and configure software components and services
- how to establish network connections like firewall accesses
- monitoring and managing processes
- administering users and groups
- analyzing and storing logs
- and more…
I found this class extremely helpful and beneficial, due to the fact that I walked away with new knowledge and new ways to solve problems that system admins encounter.
Beyond the Classroom
Since attending this course, I’ve already been able to solve multiple problems that I was having in my daily SA job.
One of the problems I’ve encountered on the job as a SA supporting programmers, is that our MongoDB server logs blow up quite quickly in our environment. The logs can grow as much as 500MB in a day. Occasionally, I need to go through and clean the logs up.
While in the course, I learned about Linux’s built-in logging configuration. It allows for logging, log rotation, compression, and/or cleanup to be setup and automated. These features save the SA time while allowing the servers to be more stable.
After learning this, I setup a script that performs these tasks for me, resulting in our servers being more stable. Now I can focus on more important issues and tasks. Without taking the class, I would have had no idea that this log cleaning method was available.
Final Thoughts
As a result of attending this course, I’ve gained new Linux SA knowledge (along with a new Linux book which provides examples I can refer to if I encounter any issues) and I am now more able to solve any problems that arise. This class was a great opportunity for networking too. I met people in the same field as me who encountered similar issues I did.
I highly suggest this course to any Linux SA or anyone who wants to become a Linux SA, regardless of their prior knowledge, because there is always something new to learn. I would also caution that if you’re currently not working in this field as your daily job, then I would encourage you to set up a virtual machine at home to practice and go over the material provided in the training books. It’s a scenario that meets the cliche’ that when you don’t use it, you lose it; however, practice makes perfect!
Want to Give this Course a Try?
If you are interested in attending Red Hat’s System Administration I, click here for more information.
Here you can find a course overview, pricing, and sign up forms. This course can be taken in person and multiple other ways such as video classroom, virtual training, online training, and more. After completing this course you can continue to the next course, which is Red Hat System Administration II, as you will need and want both training courses prior to taking the Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam to become a certified Red Hat SA.
