Looking to get my Unix / Linux knowledge up to date

jasonb

Hi there,

Back in the day ( 2000 - 2003 ) I was a Unix Systems Admin ( mainly Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8 ) with a bit of Linux knowledge as well.

I've been working with Microsoft since then, and I'd like to get my Unix / Linux skills back up to date.

Any advice how to do this? Should I just get a couple of books, maybe install a version of Linux on a PC and mess around with it ( any recommendations on which one to go for? )?

Would it be worth my while to maybe do a course in Linux / Unix to not only get the skills up to date, but to get a qualification at the end of it? If so, any courses / schools recommended?

Thanks in advance!

J.

lmimmfn

whats your reason to brush up on it? its Unix, it rarely changes. CLI/shell is pretty much the same. For Solaris 9( over 8 ) theres a new install manager, it uses java desktop but as far as im aware( without going into the real nitty gritty ) theres not that much difference between 8 and 9.

As for Linux, Ubuntu is one of the most popular versions. Personally id install the latest version and mess around with it. Isint Solaris 9/10 x86 free now too?

I havnt used Solaris 10 yet so cant comment.

I dunno, if you know core unix i fell its pointless taking courses in new versions, unless theyre courses which describe the kernal changes etc. I did a Linux course last year, was a waste of time having used Solaris for years.

If youre planning on working as a sys admin on Solaris 9/10 though i would recommend a course which covers the changes( sorry off hand i dont know any as most companies dont do bridge courses )

jasonb

Thanks for your reply...

Basically I'm on the lookout for a job, and a lot of places are looking for Unix / Linux skills. As mine are 7 years old, it doesn't look great on my CV, so I'd like to do something to get it up to date and / or show that they're up to date!

I did both Solaris and Linux Admin Courses back in 2000 / 2002, so I guess if I was looking for courses I'd be looking at some sort of 'bridge the gap' course like you said.

I think I'll install Linux ( or free Solaris x86 - I'll look out for that ) on a PC and play with it for a while, remind myself of it.

J.

biko

Did you have a look around the Unix forum?

Khannie

I can move this to the unix forum if you want.

As has been already said....your skills are probably 90% up to date already. The basics of unix haven't changed much since 2003. If I were looking for something to put on my CV, I'd be considering some RedHat certification. It's well recognised. While Ubuntu is very popular on the desktop it's going to be some time before it's making inroads in data centres. RHEL is king there.

For a free version of RHEL, have a look at Centos.

jasonb

My apologies, I had a look around but somehow managed to miss the OS forums! Yes, please move this to Unix...

And yep, I'll have a look at Red Hat, thanks...

J.

Khannie

No problem at all.

AlmightyCushion

If I were you I'd just install it on an old pc and mess about with it. While you probably know quite a lot already and don't need much updating, I'd still do it just to keep it fresh in your head. They may ask you a question in the interview that someone with even a basic knowledge of unix would be able to answer but because it's not as fresh in your head you may get stuck or just fumble it. It would be a bitch to miss out on a good job over something like that. I imagine it'll all come back to you fairly quickly once you get into the swing of it.

dubhthach

I did some of the RedHat courses there back in October (sat and passed the RHCT). Quite enjoyed it good thing about the RedHat certification is it's all practical, no multiple-choice etc. You got a broken box you got to fix and then configure it. If you can get past the initial boot issue you've no chance etc.

I'm planning on doing the RHCE later this year once RedHat 6 is released as the course material will be updated for the new release.

As for Solaris quite abit of change gone into it from an x86 point of view since 2.6 and 8. ZFS and Dtrace been among the biggies, but COMSTAR is particulary cool, nice been able to build your own SAN box using it. There should be a new version of Opensolaris distro coming out this month (2010.03) or if you are like me you can run the development version. I got b133 on my laptop (2010.03 will be based off b134), they release a new dev build every two weeks.

BopNiblets

RHCT is just practical? There's no written component?
Any good places for getting sample exams?

Mostly I've been messing around with Mint but I downloaded Fedora, just haven't installed it yet, started to read through Asghar Ghoris RHCT/RHCE book though.

Heh just did the Red Hat Assessment thing on the website and I got a score of 23, awww.

stereo_steve

To be honest I think there is a huge difference between Solaris 8 and 10.

Not for your everyday stuff, but for Admin work there definitely is. Wikipedia has a nice list. The best feature being zones imho.

I'd stick to Linux when your studying. Solaris sadly seems to be loosing market share all the time :-(

Khannie

stereo_steve wrote: »

The best feature being zones imho.

This is an amazing feature alright. Is there a linux equivalent? I'm looking at server consolidation in work at the moment. Was half gonna start a thread on this in the servers forum, but since you bring it up....

dubhthach

BopNiblets wrote: »

RHCT is just practical? There's no written component?
Any good places for getting sample exams?

Mostly I've been messing around with Mint but I downloaded Fedora, just haven't installed it yet, started to read through Asghar Ghoris RHCT/RHCE book though.

Heh just did the Red Hat Assessment thing on the website and I got a score of 23, awww.

All Redhat exams are practical. All the way up to RHCA level. They don't do any written or multiple-choice exams. So if you don't know what you are doing ye won't pass the exam (ye need 70% to pass). It's refreshing to be honest and I quite enjoying doing the course Exam.

As for sample exams I don't know, but even if I did the agreement you sign when you sit the exam basically says you can forfeit the certification if you go into details about what the exam contains etc.

dubhthach

Khannie wrote: »

This is an amazing feature alright. Is there a linux equivalent? I'm looking at server consolidation in work at the moment. Was half gonna start a thread on this in the servers forum, but since you bring it up....

There is at least 2 or 3 projects offering similiar functionality in Linux, however they are all outside of the current Kernel so they tend to require you to patch kernel before you can use them. Vserver is one example

Zones of course is inspired by Jails in FreeBSD. It's very handy for stuff like sandboxing services, you have each of your critical network services (ntp/dns/etc.) running in their own dedicated zone.

One thing I love in OpenSolaris is the integration of ZFS snapshots with the update process and Grub. You upgrade to a new build/release and it creates a new snapshot to do the upgrade on. Once you are rebooted you are presented in Grub with option of booting into the newly upgraded BE (Boot environment) or to select the non-upgrade BE. Very handy if you screw up the upgrade as you can then just boot into old BE and promote it to default while you figured out what went wrong with upgrade etc.

BopNiblets

dubhthach wrote: »

As for sample exams I don't know, but even if I did the agreement you sign when you sit the exam basically says you can forfeit the certification if you go into details about what the exam contains etc.

Huh, the guy who did this book has 250 practice questions!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Engineer-Linux-Study-Certification/dp/0072264543/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268005907&sr=8-7

Khannie

dubhthach wrote: »

One thing I love in OpenSolaris is the integration of ZFS snapshots with the update process and Grub. You upgrade to a new build/release and it creates a new snapshot to do the upgrade on. Once you are rebooted you are presented in Grub with option of booting into the newly upgraded BE (Boot environment) or to select the non-upgrade BE. Very handy if you screw up the upgrade as you can then just boot into old BE and promote it to default while you figured out what went wrong with upgrade etc.