From: Steve Leighton (olsofty_at_snet.net)
Date: Fri Nov 04 2005 - 04:57:45 PST
Wow. What a great post and a great thread! I'm going to save this and frame
it for my kids because the wisdom in it applies to almost any lifework they
want to pursue. I'm neither a PC tech nor sysadmin (except for the family)
but this is exactly the path I took in my career and now that that is over,
I can testify that it works. Kudos for the original question and all of the
responses.
-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net] On Behalf Of David Ensteness
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 11:02 AM
To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
Subject: Re: [NTLK] [NTLK][OT] becoming a competent technician.
Short answer:
General knowledge and passion are important in any pursuit. Best
Practice is the path to follow. Tools are not important, concepts are.
Whether a sys admin, a network engineer, or a help desk tech - you
should be able to solve a problem with several tools, that means a
Mac, a Windows PC, a Linux PC, via the GUI or the command line, using
Disk Utility or using diskutil or using fdisk.
Generalists rule the day, they keep perspective, they are open to new
and different solutions, they are not held down by traditional
thinking. Learn things that are "outside your scope" because there is
overlap in all things.
Long answer:
Volunteer to fix stuff, take on broken hardware, build a small LAN of
a half dozen boxes running different OSs from different OS platforms
- setup an OS X Server and try to make em all access/use the same
services equally. Then setup a Windows 2003 Advanced Server and do it
again, then setup a Linux server and do it again, then integrate the
three servers to that each provides something to the others and the
client, essentially split the work load between em and see if you can
still keep your network working. Make sure you have a random mix of
client boxes, a Linux PC, a Win2k box, a WinXP Pro box, a Win98SE
box, a Classic Mac OS system, a Mac OS X v.10.2 system, a 10.3
system, a 10.4 system ....
Configure network home directories and Open Directory, and Active
Directory ... file sharing over all available protocols (AFP, SMB,
NFS), run services you will never actually use, run web service,
configure a mail server, configure Kerberos for all three
platforms ... secure your e-mail and web traffic on the local network.
Along the way you'll learn to make DHCP, DNS work, you'll learn what
software has been Kerberized by its developer, you'll learn how
create and use self-signed SSL certs, which authentication protocols
are truly secure and what application software and platforms they are
compatible with.
Once you get the core stuff working, file service, DHCP, DNS, etc ...
(you learn what "core stuff" is during the journey ;-) then flesh it
out, start running e-mail virus filters, run a Mac OS X and a Windows
update server locally. Secure the new little network you made -
physically and digitally - from the workstation level up. Try to only
use secure protocols - become intolerant of things that won't let you
- then learn what compromises are good and which ones are bad.
Configure VPN services and appropriate firewalls and routing so you
can admin your stuff from a bar or a coffee shop - then do that
EXCLUSIVELY for a while, learn the pitfalls and the limits of what
you can do remotely vs locally. And then solve those hurdles so that
you could run your little hobby LAN from anywhere in the world with a
network connection. Force yourself to work from the command line
interface (CLI). Examine log files, setup service fail-over and
notifications, then unplug stuff and see if anything actually breaks
- if it does - do it over.
Discovering Best Practices is important, but once you discover them -
become a zealot of them.
Buy a layer 3 network switch (heck - I'll sell ya mine if ya want, I
don't make use of it any more) it doesn't need to be any particular
model or brand, you do all these things to learn concepts and become
familiar with tools, but focus on the concepts, tools are not that
important. Configure the crap out of the switch, setup port trunking
and traffic prioritization, turn off ports you don't use ... get
ahold of your own termination tools and make your own network cables,
all of em. Wire everything yourself.
Always use your day-to-day workstation as part of the experiment -
that is motivation ... when ya break stuff - you have to fix it
before you can check your e-mail or surf the net - that's also
realistic.
Don't buy highend computers, buy random boxes, 700MHz PCs are getting
given away at this point, BW G3s run every flavor of Mac OS you'd
need to use - slow but speed isn't the goal. Buy different spec'd
computers, not all similar ones - this will expose you to different
models, motherboards, physically incompatible components, etc ...
Find take apart manuals, field strip all your equipment, find
hardware diagnostics and run em on EVERYTHING. Along the way you will
create a repository of resources, using various websites, a
collection of notes, saved CLI cmds, scripts, SW and HW tools you like.
Hopefully you will learn of the serious things the hardware - want to
spur the beast on? Hit a hard drive with a hammer - then install it
in your primary workstation and keep all your data on it - all of a
sudden backup becomes important .... So create a backup system, learn
about backup schemes, replicate big installations on a small scale.
Don't replace the broken HDD - use it until it completely fails on
you - experience the stuff for yourself. Until you've seen it, you
haven't seen it. Then when it fails - restore your data from the
backup ... see if it worked ;-)
If a person is serious about becoming a computer technician in terms
of pursuing work ... and you are a Mac guy ... go to peachpit.com and
buy a couple books, read em cover to cover, memorize em, take the
practice exams, then go get certified. The books in question: Desktop
and Portable Systems second edition, Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials,
Mac OS X Support Essentials. All are part of the Apple Training
Series. Apple's training isn't about their hardware so much as it is
about their style of support - they want things done their way, what
they consider best practice.
If on the other hand system administration is your thing - read a lot
of manuals ... like all of em, for Mac OS X Server, for Windows 2003
Advanced Server - don't read at night in bed cover to cover - your
wife will kill ya - they are meant as reference tools not story
books, read the chunks on what you are doing, read the chunks on what
you aren't doing so that your appetite gets wet.
No matter what your personal platform preference is - become a crazed
nut about mixed platform environments. Realize that anyone who uses
Windows in an office environment can use Linux (95% of the time).
Realize that Macs can do spreadsheets and Windows can do video
(though its expensive and sorta crappy ;-). Realize that you are
better at what you do if you can offer people choices and still hold
it all together.
LEARN TO DOCUMENT - track what you do, schedule maintenance stuff,
software updating, etc ... backup configuration files, use secure
passwords so long you hate you life, keep critical config. data in
encrypted formats.
I am a big fan of self taught, but self taught sometimes lacks the
self-discipline of formally trained ... as in all things, a mix is
best. Remember that being a sys admin is like being a comic - you
just copy other people until you have your own act, and learning to
be funny is tough.
Once you have done all that - if you are young enough to afford it -
find some lousy place to work that needs a sys admin / help desk /
"computer guy" - some place with some money but no clue, get paid
piss, work 65+ hours a week because you want to take their hobby
garage style operation and make it something a corporate systems
engineer would respect. Drag em kicking and screaming to a secure,
documented, reliable world with far more offerings than there ever
could have been before.
David
-Lead Sys Admin and Help Desk Coordinator
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